Somewhere between Treasure and Victorialand, the Cocteau Twins’ drummer quit.

Rather than hire a session guy or put an ad out in the paper, they decided to make their record without one.

Not only did this do away with the Joy Division influence of their early days, further solidifying their transition from post-punk to dream pop, but it also eliminated the single most dated element of their sound (the drum production) and helped them create an album even more timeless than the classic Treasure.

The lack of drums, combined with singer Elizabeth Frasier’s gibberish lyrics and even more reverb than its predecessor, turns Victorialand into an ambient classic on par with Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports and Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way. And considering how frequently I just want to be drowned in texture without bothering with coherent lyrics or tyrannous rhythms, this record gets an awful lot of play.