& then there were the Cocteau Twins. A wash of words come up when trying to think of how to describe what sort of influence the Cocteau's have had and have left upon the better part of a generation with their strangely beautiful, amorphous, luscious and serenly textural output all matched with a visual freshness and language that impacted the graphic world at large; courtesy v23 or 23 envelope, depending. The image fit the music and the two gelled in ways which few have before or since.
Elizabeth's voice and her usage of cooing and dada-ist babble, tangled in with snippets and chorused phrasing will go down as one of the more unique and beautiful voices of the late 20th century. A development which brought her closer and closer to being understood as a human and which displayed her growth both as a songwriter and personally with the later albums.
Robin Guthries impact with the Cocteau Twins as a producer and follower of a sound upon sound and heavily effected and textural approach with production is broad to say the least. An approach later swiped wholesale with the brunt of the shoegazer scene and most in particular by Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. Coming full circle to now; producers like Ulrich Schnauss and others have taken and at least technologically updated the blueprint left out by a coupla guitarists with mountains of effects, a singer who wails on herself while she's performing, and a drum machine. As yet tho and probably thankfully so. No one label, or group, has taken it upon themselves to update and give thanks to the Cocteau Twins in a way that their immediate contemporaries; Slowdive have had done for them with Morr Music's ably positioned and most capable Blue Sky'd an Clear release. Mark Clifford of Seefeel, had a go at remixing the Cocteau Twins several times. While Mark Clifford was obviously indebted to the Cocteau Twins. His treatment of their material did leave a bit to be desired leaving many questions about how their material could and or should be treated as potential remixing material; especially considering that it has been sample fodder for numerous producers across the board.
Rumors have spread on occasion about a new album of which work was underway at one time and the attempt for a reunion performance at the 2005 Coachella festival was cancelled citing differences of opinion just days before it was to happen. So it appears the Cocteau Twins are indeed through and kaput. Even as easy sell out cash in on the sentiment revivalists. But you never do know what will happen and stranger things have happened.

First comment on the Cocteau Twins! Is a comment necessary? Let me just say that the oeuvre is great, and this band interpets the enormous influence of Kate Bush and synth-pop in extraordinary and amazingly creative ways. Truly one of the greatest forces in soulful underground pop music in the past few decades and likely in the next few to come.