Song · Cocteau Twins
“Aikea-Guinea” by Cocteau Twins
Released 1985
“Aikea-Guinea” by Cocteau Twins appears on 4 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 1985 and 2003. It was first released in 1985. Its best result is #5 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1985. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #49 alternative song of 1985 and #4,056 alternative song of all time.
Watch
Video from YouTube (Cocteau Twins). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Aikea-Guinea" came out on 4AD in March 1985, on a seven-inch single and a 12-inch EP, and it catches Cocteau Twins at their most gorgeously unplaceable. Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde wrote it and produced it themselves, and the title, according to Guthrie, is a Scottish bit of slang for a seashell.
This is ethereal wave at full shimmer, a haze that nobody else in 1985 was building quite like this. The song kept resurfacing: on The Pink Opaque the same year, as a bonus on some Canadian pressings of Treasure, remastered on Stars and Topsoil in 2000, and in a remixed alternate version on the Lullabies to Violaine set in 2005.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 5 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1985 | 50 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 369 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) | 1002 |
| 2002 | 1918 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 1290 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
Also listed as: A Ikea Guinea.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Aikea-Guinea" by Cocteau Twins.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.