The Cocteau Twins are not only the greatest dream pop band, they are for me the Alexander Pushkin of dream pop. As Pushkin is the father of Russian literature, so are the Twins father to dream pop. 
So if you are going to make a dream pop album it is hard for people not to listen your album and relate it back to the original masters of the genre. All that is said to make this point. When you listen to the Cocteau Twins it is very easy to find yourself moving to the music, getting emotional, getting at times as fired up as you might listening to Led Zeppelin. Yes their music was dreamy, but underneath were good beats and haunting melodies which pulled you into their dreamscape and gave you a full musical experience. Dream pop is more than just a bunch of pretty sounding layered synthesizers.
Within and Without is just a bunch of pretty sounding layered synthesizers with no emotional connection. If you want to throw on a pretty sounding dream pop album while you read a book, then give this a spin, but don't expect to be drawn into the experience in any way.
Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 1 out of 5 stars for Just OK.
i actually am often in the market for stuff like "pretty sounding layered synthesizers with no emotional connection" as it's a nice backdrop to writing client materials. so, thanks for the tip!
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