The Moon and the Melodies

The Moon and the Melodies (1986) is the product of a one-off collaboration between the Scottish group Cocteau Twins and the American composer Harold Budd. The Cocteau Twins refused to sign the album with the band's name and used their individual names instead.^{[citation needed]}

The album has the characteristic style — heavily-treated guitar sounds and strangely euphoric vocalising — that can be heard in the group's other work from the same period, for example on the EP "Echoes in a Shallow Bay" or the album Victorialand. Harold Budd's stylistic piano tonalities and phrasing on this project are echoed in his solo album, Lovely Thunder, from the same year.

The phrases "bloody and blunt" and "ooze out and away, onehow" come from Elizabeth Fraser's lyrics on the songs "The Tinderbox (Of a Heart)" and "My Love Paramour", both from the 1983 Cocteau Twins album Head Over Heels. Reusing phrases from old songs as titles for others can be considered one of Fraser's signature characteristics, as can her habit of emphasizing syllables in ways that differ from standard usage.

Elizabeth Fraser appears on tracks 1, 4, 5, and 8. The saxophonist Richard Thomas appears on tracks 5, 6, and 7.