The Moon and the Melodies

{{short description|1986 album by Harold Budd and members of the Cocteau Twins}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{More citations needed|date=May 2019}}

{{Infobox album

| name = The Moon and the Melodies

| type = studio

| artist = Harold Budd and Cocteau Twins

| cover = BuddFraserGuthrieRaymonde.TheMoonAndTheMelodies.cd.jpg

| alt =

| released = 10 November 1986

| recorded =

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = {{hlist|Ambient|dream pop}}

| length = 37:20

| label = 4AD

| producer = Harold Budd, Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie, Simon Raymonde

| chronology = Cocteau Twins

| prev_title = Love's Easy Tears

| prev_year = 1986

| next_title = Blue Bell Knoll

| next_year = 1988

| misc = {{Extra chronology

| artist = Harold Budd

| type = studio

| prev_title = Lovely Thunder

| prev_year = 1986

| title = The Moon and the Melodies

| year = 1986

| next_title = Myths 3: La Nouvelle Serenite

| next_year = 1987

}}

}}

{{Album ratings

|rev1 = AllMusic

|rev1Score = {{rating|3.5|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r2895|first=Peter|last=Stepek}}

}}

The Moon and the Melodies is a collaborative studio album by Scottish dream pop band Cocteau Twins and American minimalist composer Harold Budd. It was released 10 November 1986 by 4AD. The name "Cocteau Twins" did not appear on the release, which instead credited the band's three members (Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde) and Budd individually.

A version of the track "Memory Gongs" was released on Budd's Lovely Thunder as "Flowered Knife Shadows", dedicated to Raymonde.

The phrases "bloody and blunt" and "ooze out and away, onehow" came from 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.

Fraser sings on tracks 1, 4, 5 and 8. The saxophonist Richard Thomas of Dif Juz appeared on tracks 5, 6 and 7.

A remastered edition was released on August 23, 2024, on LP, CD and download/streaming. Guthrie handled the remastering, including updating The Ghost Has No Home to begin without a fade-in.