Blue Bell Knoll

The band had put their savings into a studio in a North Acton warehouse they shared with woodworkers, and Blue Bell Knoll was the first album made entirely there. 4AD hoped Brian Eno would produce; after meeting him, the band carried on alone. Guthrie and Raymonde built the ten backing tracks, Raymonde playing the melodic guitars and Guthrie the bass, sequences and fuzzed feedback guitar, and Fraser came in near the end and named the songs. Guthrie said there were no outtakes. Fraser called it the easiest record she had ever made, and Raymonde a fun one.

It was their first record released through a major label in America, Capitol, and Carolyn's Fingers went to number two on Billboard's modern rock chart. It reached fifteen in Britain. Pitchfork called it their airiest album, and it appears among Pitchfork's best albums of the 1980s. Years later Fraser told John Grant on stage that hearing it again had made her cry. Chris Tapley wrote the 33 1/3 book on it in 2025.