On 15 April 1986, Cocteau Twins released their the eighth and final studio album, Milk & Kisses.
The album was released during a time of pressure and fragmented relations between the band and their label, with bassist Simon Raymonde claiming that the band should "never have signed the deal", claiming that the record label worked in a very different manner than that of the band, and that the Cocteau Twins were unable to replicate previous sales and success, which appeared to be a disappointment to the record label.
Critically, Milk & Kisses received generally positive reviews, with AllMusic claiming "Milk & Kisses finds the band in a comfortable rut; they've created, and now perfected, a style of music so distinctive that there seems to be little recent creative growth. The result is a beautiful, lush, but somewhat dated and unengaging sounding album that tends to wash over the listener without making any real impact. It is, however, everything that a Cocteau Twins album promises; hypnotic, dreamy, awash in ethereal voices, and delicate, liquid guitars".