The Cocteau Twins Open The Door To Their Music

Concert preview

Cocteau Twins and Luna, 8 p.m. Monday, Paramount Theatre; $18.50-$22.50; 628-0888. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Lyrically elusive, instrumentally effusive, The Cocteau Twins have spent the past 10 years building a body of work most of us couldn't get into with a crowbar. We might marvel at the construction, the beauty of the adornments, the mystery of the language emitted, but it has still remained music best suited to drifting off by not entering. The stuff of dreamscapes and beautiful ambient sound.

Much of the mystery of The Cocteau Twin's music has always had to do with lead singer Elizabeth Fraser's choice of words, if it can be called that. Her lyrics, until the new album "Four-Calender Cafe," have always been a pastiche of syllables and sounds, clipped phrases often unrelated to one another. The Scots - The Cocteaus are from the industrial Scottish town Grangemouth - have a name for it: port-a-beul, or "mouth music." It's always been one of the band's signature trademarks.

But with the new album, Fraser is actually singing sentences that make sense to others beside herself, that are actually revealing of her soul and psyche. It makes the music that much more accessible, and opens the door a little wider.

What hasn't changed is the music, the sounds created by guitarist Robin Guthrie, Fraser's husband, and bassist-keyboardist Simon Raymonde. While their instrumentation may be relatively simple, the array of effects and tricks employed by the musicians is not. They've pulled out every pedal and switch they can, and in doing so create lush, shimmering liquid arrangements.

In the past, both on stage and in the studio, The Cocteaus have always relied on a drum machine for their rhythm tracks. On this latest tour, however, they have a drummer (Benny di Massa) and a percussionist (Dave Palfreyman) along with guitarists Mitsuo Tate and Ben Blakeman. The Cocteaus have said they feel better about performing live. They have all gotten past their stage fright - Fraser was the worst - and are now playing with more abandon than before.

Luna, the opening act, are like The Cocteau Twins in that their music is melodic and pure, but that's where the similarities stop. There's nothing really mysterious about Dean Wareham's lyrics. He's a straight shooter, as likely to write a road song as anything else.

Luna has been together for two years, with the members - Wareham and Sean Eden on guitar, Justin Harwood on bass and Stanley Demeski - coming from bands like The Chills, The Feelies and Galaxy 500.

Wareham is responsible for most of the lyrics and everyone else contributes on the melodies. "It's nice to have people helping out," he said from New York.. "We did the new album ("Bewitched") in six weeks but we could have done it in two. I don't understand people that take months to do an album. I think they just don't have any songs ready. They have no songs and too much money."

Wareham's songs have a distinctly late 1960s feel to them. The Velvet Underground is a big influence. But it never dirges down. There's a nice airy feeling to Luna's material. The Luna-Cocteau Twins show should be nothing if not peaceful.