In Defense Of

Paris opens with the iconic baby voice of Paris Hilton whispering “that’s hot” in a way that brings you straight back to 2006, when Paris Hilton’s indifference, utter shallowness, and drunk table dancing made her a household name. But the genius of being famous for being famous is that Paris was never meant to be a serious introduction into the music industry, but instead a mere shrug of the shoulder, making the record captivatingly ambivalent. Hilton essentially left the music industry (until recently beginning a strange DJing career) after dropping Paris and the forever nostalgic one-hit-wonder “Stars Are Blind,” making this record a relic of the past and a distinct, brilliant image of socialite stardom.

Paris is shallowness at its best, featuring songs about feeling sexy, being sexy, and making sure everyone else thinks you’re sexy. On “Fightin’ over Me” Hilton brags about the amount of suitors following her around the club. In its totality, Paris exists in the club, as you can see the table dancing and socialites in their VIP section. Although it may seem out of touch with the rest of the world, the beauty of a Paris Hilton album is that it was never meant to be taken seriously. It’s fun pop music at its very best, exuding carelessness and youthful exuberance.

The drama continues on “Jealousy,” rumored to be about onand-off again best friend, Nicole Richie. After a mysterious fallout in 2005, “Jealousy” appeared on Paris and painted a picture of Richie as the best friend that couldn’t accept Hilton’s mega stardom. “Jealousy” is surprisingly more intense than the rest of Paris, featuring harder guitar while Hilton sings “nobody wins when you’re full of envy.” Much of Paris follows this theme of feeling above it all, in a way that could only happen when you’re born into one of the richest families in the country. If you can get past the pure ignorance for how the rest of the world lives, Paris emerges as an exciting album from a pop star that could’ve been, if only she cared enough to do so.

Although clearly much better pop music came out of the early 2000s, Paris was unfairly criticized because of the socialite, party girl image that was all over the tabloids during the time. While releasing an album may have just been another step in Hilton’s plan to cling onto relevancy, some of the tracks still remain some of the greatest guilty pleasures. “Nothing in This World,” a somewhat more proper version of Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend,” finds Hilton lusting after another girl’s boyfriend, all while knowing deep down he will end up with Paris. The confidence and aloofness that exudes from this song makes the listener feel like maybe they too could be a hot socialite for the night.

Moreover the best moments of Paris are when Hilton is unapologetically full of herself. “Turn You On” is Hilton breathlessly dancing at the club, while seducing men with just a glance (“Don’t get excited baby cause I might turn you on”). Furthermore, Hilton attempts to shake off some of the criticism she received in the press singing, “Don’t believe all that you read my ish out loud. We can dance all night but you ain’t getting none.” Although at its core “Turn You On” is just a carefree pop song, it also paints an image of a young socialite that may be sick of men assuming that she’s easy just because she gets drunk and dances on table tops. Closing out the album is a genius cover of Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.” After ten tracks of Hilton telling us how sexy she is, it’s almost too perfect that she then finally decides to ask us to confirm it. Her baby voice is in full form here, dripping over the lyrics, making it seem as though this song was written for Hilton to cover.

Paris Hilton is likely a much more complex character then the overall public assumes. Paris at first listen may seem shallow and disconnected from the rest of the world, but it is also a product of growing up undeniably famous. Although we probably will never get the real image of who Paris Hilton really is, that’s likely what made and continues to make Paris so intriguing.

• Emma Turney (Communication) Designer:

Ellie Johnson

(Graphic and Information Design)

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COCTEAU TWINS

Fall 2020 Originally formed in Grangemouth, Scotland in 1979, Cocteau Twins grew to be one of the most popular bands out of Scotland. The band’s membership was constant after 1983, consisting of Robin Guthrie (the only original member), Elizabeth Fraser, and Simon Raymonde. Elizabeth Fraser was the primary vocalist of the group, and her lilting voice helped to carve out a spot in pop culture for the band’s incredibly unique sound. Cocteau Twins defined the early dream pop genre, especially on albums such as Treasure, Blue Bell Knoll, and Heaven or Las Vegas. The trio was plagued by internal conflicts typically stemming from the relationship between Guthrie and Fraser, but those same conflicts led to the best music the band produced. Unfortunately, the infighting eventually boiled over during the final separation between Guthrie and Fraser, leading to the band’s total dissolution in 1997. Over the nearly twenty years that Cocteau Twins was active, eight solo LPs and one collaborative LP with the American composer Harold Budd were released.

1982

Garlands, the first LP from Cocteau Twins, introduced an angsty and gothic rock-infused sound to the UK scene, debuting at #2 on the indie charts. The early sounds of the band were categorized by Fraser’s barely-intelligible vocals obscured by layers of heavy instrumentation, leading to an immediately captivating experience. The opening track “Blood Bitch” revealed an album-defining anxiety characterized by the vibrato in Fraser’s vocals and fast, intense instrumentals. While lyrics were far more coherent at times than in later releases, the extensive use of heavy distortion on guitars in tandem with moody basslines served to further immerse the listener in the urgency of the music. The sonic themes present in Garlands was the closest that Cocteau Twins came to typical gothic rock given the darker themes and strong sense of dread permeating tracks such as “Blind Dumb Deaf” and “Grail Overfloweth.”

1983

Released a year after Garlands in 1983, Head over Heels was a logical development of the Cocteau Twins sound and served as the bridging album between their gothic rock-esque origins and the ethereal dream pop genre they became so well known for. Head Over Heels featured even more layering of technical guitar work from Guthrie and stylistically refined vocals from Fraser. On “Sugar Hiccup,” the most popular track from the album, the dream pop style is discernible Cocteau Twins became what casual listeners recognize as Cocteau Twins on their third LP, Treasure. The transition from Garlands, or were released in just as many years, displaying the rapid maturation of the band’s sonic style. Treasure was firmly dream pop, with barely coherent vocals and ethereal, laid back instrumentals. Fraser’s looping and cyclic lyrics worked more to accentuate Guthrie and Raymonde’s Victorialand stands out in the Cocteau Twins discography as both an oddball and another important stylistic bridge. The album was almost entirely acoustic, only featuring Fraser on vocals and Guthrie on guitars, and yet was the most ambient album that the band released. The concept of a typical song was stretched out to its furthest limits on tracks like “Oomingmak” and “Feet-like Fins,” where Fraser’s voice blended into the acoustic instrumentals to develop a specific experience and mood. Tracks also switched tempo without warning in but still very clouded, while “The Tinderbox (Of a Heart)” and other tracks are easily traceable back to the sonic qualities of Garlands. The resulting project was a pleasant mixture of high energy tracks that fully engaged listeners with the music, whether it was trying to decipher Fraser’s soft-edged gibberish or appreciating the developing

1984

even Head Over Heels, to Treasure was shocking, as the three albums style that the group displayed. instrument work than act as a separate component. On “Beatrix” and “Amelia” especially, Fraser’s singing is used more as an additional instrument, matching the ebbs and flows of the tracks’ basslines. This specific union of rock instruments with vocal noise was unprecedented, and influenced not only subsequent Cocteau Twins albums, but the entire discographies of Cocteau Twins contemporaries.

1986

response to unintelligible vocals rather than following any traditional musical structures. Perhaps the most important development that Cocteau Twins underwent on Victorialand was the total integration of vocals into the instrumental backdrops of tracks, where Fraser’s voice was mastered at the same level as Guthrie’s various riffs and loops on guitar. This effect was found on tracks in every subsequent album and hugely influenced contemporaries in the dream pop genre.

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Fall 2020Fall 2020

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1986

The Moon and the Melodies, the only fully collaborative studio album that Cocteau Twins created, tapped American composer Harold Budd to work with the group on creating Victorialand-esque tracks without any of the bells and whistles that their previous album had. The result was a series of tracks that wasn’t characteristic of the band, instead opting for an emphasis on simpler instrumentals and minimal vocals. Fraser only sang on four of the eight tracks, with Budd, Guthrie, By 1988, Cocteau Twins was receiving widespread attention, including some from the US. The jump across the Atlantic was spurred by Blue Bell Knoll, an energetic release that marked a return to what was becoming generally accepted as the band’s sound. However, the introduction of vocals layered over each other and bright multi-instrumental displays showed a further refining of Cocteau Twins’ sonic palate. The track “Carolyn’s Fingers” was the lead By far the band’s most commercially successful release, Heaven or Las Vegas would go down as Cocteau Twins’ legacy. Opening with the richest Fraser’s voice had ever been, “Cherry-coloured Funk” would become synonymous with the name ‘Cocteau Twins,’ and cemented their status as an influential group on the world scale. The album perfected everything that Blue Bell Knoll hadn’t been able to, where every track responded to specific moods and experiences but was equally inaccessible because of the instrumental shrouding. The resulting effect was an unattainable mood board and was only enhanced by nearly legible vocals from Fraser merged with clearly recognizable guitarwork, all hidden behind the typical Cocteau and Raymonde composing and producing the instrumentals. The album had a strong start with “Sea, Swallow Me” but was weakened by subsequent tracks without any lyrics. While The Moon and the Melodies demonstrated Cocteau Twins’ ability to successfully collaborate with an outside influence, the album was a developmental step backwards from Victorialand and suffered due to the deintegration of Fraser’s vocals from the sonic landscape of the album.

1988

single off the album and showcased the playful energy of the band during production. Other tracks maintained a far more upbeat and triumphant energy than was seen in previous releases. Blue Bell Knoll stood out as one of the strongest and most popular LPs that Cocteau Twins ever released and put the group in a position to make their

1990

most influential work two years later. Twin over-layered production. Fraser’s first child was born and Raymonde’s father died during the album’s conceptualization stage, leading to themes centering on the duality between life and death. These themes were present in both sonic mood and lyrics, creating a tension between joy and sorrow on many tracks, and enhancing the effect of the album to encompass a huge range of emotion. The tracks “Heaven or Las Vegas” and “Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires” formed emotional centers on the album with layered, looping vocals and swelling guitar riffs, but every other song still excelled at creating a unique listening experience.

1993

Four-Calendar Café was a departure from the era that most clearly defined Cocteau Twins, released three years after the successful Heaven or Las Vegas. The circumstances surrounding the album definitively marked the beginning of the end for the band, given the extremely tentative state of Fraser and Guthrie’s relationship. The themes of the album reflected much of this tension, anger, and stress, which led to far more introspective and questioning vocals on Fraser’s part. The clearly intelligible lyrics found on most tracks was unique to The last LP from Cocteau Twins, Milk & Kisses mirrored Four Calendar Café in its introspective themes and atmospheric sonic aesthetic. The album saw Fraser’s vocals layer and blend with instruments once again, but the instruments themselves were slightly more rock oriented, where Raymonde and Guthrie opted for electric guitar riffs and driving drumlines rather than the acoustic-based sounds of other albums. The change was refreshing and made for a pleasant listening experience that drove home the reflective nature of the the LP, as was the more traditional song format that multiple tracks took. Despite distancing from these two stylistic staples, the album was still sonically vibrant, and vocals worked alongside energetic melodies rather than being fully submerged and melding with them. Four Calendar Café also opted for a lighter, pop-oriented sound which juxtaposed the generally pained and reflective lyrics. Tracks like “Know Who You Are At Every Age,” “Bluebeard,” and “Squeeze-Wax” all exemplify various aspects of the group’s altered style.

1996

songs. Standout tracks included “Serpentskirt,” “Treasure Hiding,” and “Seekers Who Are Lovers,” the last of which finished off the album and featured perhaps some of the clearest vocals from Fraser in years. The band would go on to tour the album, but less than a year later they would dissolve for good, in large part from the tension between Fraser and Guthrie. Rather than suffering from the clear internal conflicts that surrounded its development, Milk & Kisses went down as a final showcase of Cocteau Twins’ immense skill and talent.

• Terrance Dumoulin (Civil Engineering and Architectural Studies)

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