It's a long time since I put this on my turntable. There was a lot more at stake with this than with Victorialand because I remembered being underwhelmed by that, yet I was definitely overwhelmed with Treasure. Yet Aikea-Guinea failed to live up to my memories, and I thought this might too.
So in the end it came as a surprise that I was captivated all over again. The songs that I remember loving, I still love. There were others I'd forgotten about, particularly Aloysius, that I had to chide myself for not, errr, treasuring more attentively. And then the end of the album, where it clears the palate briefly with Otterly before the Grand Finale of Donimo — well, I had to indulge my old teenage habit of turning the lights off and turning the volume up just to wallow in it more completely. (And in so doing, just to piss on my own fire a bit, I did notice a modest resemblance in the churchy choral bits of Donimo to Yes's Awaken — hmmm…)
Along with The Smiths this was one of the albums I anticipated most in 1984 (and back then, a good new album really was a pivotal part of being alive). I remember the first plays on John Peel's show, weeks before it came out, which I taped carefully of course. He introduced Donimo rather flippantly for such an earth-shattering composition, muttering "perhaps it's a tribute to Fats Donimo [self-mocking chuckle]". Then there was the infamous Steve Sutherland review in Melody Maker, which I think I read out to you in our Cosin Court living room, when it concluded with "surely this is the Voice of God". In those days such hyperbole stood out like a sore thumb; now it gets splattered liberally over every new skinny-trousered bunch of upstarts mumble… bumble… grumble…
Finally, I remember seeing the Cocteau Twins performing Lorelei on the Old Grey Whistle Test. Twice in the second half of the song there's a bit where Liz Fraser sings this "Hwuaargh" sound that is followed a fraction of a second later by a shorter "Hwa". I'd assumed from the record that this must be achieved by multi-tracking or some other studio trickery, but the TV camera was focused on her mouth as she seemed almost to suck the first sound back in and then regurgitate it. Incredible.
As you can tell, this album, like It'll End in Tears, is very rooted in that time for me.
Just yesterday Andy referenced my Victorialand comments, but eschewed the old for something new instead — a band called Mahogany, of whom I'd never heard before. I understand and respect the principle. All I can say is that I really, really enjoyed listening to Treasure again.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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