Milk & Kisses / Cocteau Twins // Official website

“The brilliant thing about this album is that it all happened so fast. Robin and I would write a song and then not have to wait around forever the muse to visit Liz.” Simon Raymonde

“Making this record was a very joyous experience. It only took two months to record, which for us is amazing. Simon used to come into the studio in the daytime to do his thing, then I would come in at night to do mine, and then Liz would come in when neither one of us was around. We were never in the studio at the same time. This time, we really were together much of the time.” Robin Guthrie

“A friend was kind of comforting me on the phone and they were just being so sweet, really. They had empathy for what I was going through, and they said, ‘I wish I could get the poison out of you. I wish I could just take it out of you and replace it with milk and kisses.’ And I just thought that was really brilliant! It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I kept hearing it and feeling so good about it, it seemed right to use it.” Elizabeth Fraser

Milk & Kisses

March 1996
Fontana/Mercury & Capitol
514 501-1
41 min, 32 sec

Track listing

Violaine
Serpentskirt
Tishbite
Half-Gifts
Calfskin-Smack
Rilkean Heart
Ups
Eperdu
Treasure Hiding
Seekers Who Are Lovers

Formats

Vinyl
Cassette
CD
Digital

Performers

Release notes

Produced by Cocteau Twins.
Written and performed by Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde.
Recordings at Pors Poulhan, Bretagne and September Sound, London.
Engineered by Cocteau Twins, Lincoln Fong, Mitsuo Tate and Des Ward.
Special thanks to Benny diMassa, Ben Blakeman, Dave Palfreeman and Mitsuo Tate. Thanks to Nina Jackson at September Sound, and Raymond, Darren, Michael and Fiona at Coffer Management.
Sleeve artwork by Blue Source. Photography by Spiros Politis.

In the UK album charts, Milk & Kisses peaked at #17.
Singles were released for the songs “Tishbite” and “Violaine”.
A promotional video was produced for “Tishbite.”
Dedication reads: “Milk and kisses for the first man / my old man / love and a thousandfold rose for Buckley / my Rilkean Hearted friend” (From Elizabeth; ‘Buckley’ is a reference to the late Jeff Buckley, who died in 1997.)
Lyrics excerpts from “Violaine,” “Tishbite,” “Eperdu,” and “Treasure Hiding” appear explicitly, or are otherwise visible in, the sleeve artwork.
A special, deluxe limited edition disc with foldout sleeve was produced in the UK.
The versions of “Half-Gifts” and “Rilkean Heart” are different from those appearing on the 1995 EP Twinlights.
“Violaine” and “Seekers Who Are Lovers” appear on the 1995 EP Otherness, remixed by Mark Clifford.
An alternate Chinese version of “Serpentskirt” was recorded by Faye Wong (Wangfei), featuring Liz on backing vocals and Faye on lead. Faye Wong also recorded a version of “Rilkean Heart.”
All tracks except “Ups” and “Eperdu” were performed live on radio, television, and on tour.
This was the last LP to be released by Cocteau Twins prior to their disbanding in 1997.
Milk & Kisses was digitally remastered and re-released on CD Universal Music in 2006.
A remastered vinyl pressing of Milk & Kisses was released by Universal Music in 2017.
Milk & Kisses was included in the 2018 release Treasure Hiding: The Fontana Years.
Robin Guthrie remastered Milk & Kisses in 2023 and it was re-released under exclusive license by 4AD in 2024 on vinyl, compact disc, and digital formats.

Listen and buy online

Videos

"Tishbite" official video, 1996.
Live performance of "Seekers Who Are Lovers," VH1 1996.
Live televised performance of "Seekers Who Are Lovers," featuring Mark Clifford, on 'The White Room,' 1995.
Interview with Liz and Simon, VH1 1996.