Heaven Or Las Vegas

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Even as the band soared commercially and creatively, personally they suffered. Between the release of Blue Bell Knoll and the recording of Heaven or Las Vegas, Fraser gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter, yet Guthrie remained deep in the throes of drug addiction, which made him paranoid and angry. Raymonde mourned the death of his father. Suddenly the stakes for the Cocteau Twins seemed impossibly high. “Fraser named the album Heaven or Las Vegas [as] a suggestion of music versus commerce, or perhaps a gamble, one last throw of the dice,” Martin Aston writes in Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD, implying that the band was close to imploding. On the other hand, its general dismissal by critics and fans as a lesser Cocteau Twins album may have less to do with the album itself and more to do with the fact that it is bookended by better and more ecstatically creative works. There are moments of disarming beauty on Blue Bell Knoll—the melting keyboards on “ Cico Buff”, the lush vocal layering of “ Athol-Brose”, the shooting-stars opening of “ A Kissed Out Red Floatboat”, Raymonde’s syncopated bass trudge of “ The Itchy Glowblo Blow”, the whatever that is at the end of “ Spooning Good Singing Gum” (I think it might be a herd of lovelorn goats playing saxophones). But the standout is “ Carolyn’s Fingers”, which would become the Cocteau Twins’ first American single. The band never utilized its rhythm section to better effect: Against Guthrie’s crisp guitar line, that churning momentum pushes Fraser’s vocals to greater and greater heights, her unexpected swoops and eloquently rolled consonants creating a bewildering indie-pop aria. Music Direct reserves the right to change the terms of this promotion or discontinue this offer at any time. This was the last Cocteau Twins recording to appear on the 4AD label, and was simultaneously released on Capitol Records in the United States. Heaven or Las Vegas displays musical evolution, with the music becoming more accessible. Fraser's lyrics were more intelligible; many concerned her newborn child Lucy Belle, particularly "Pitch the Baby", which is about her experience in giving birth and welcoming a child. [12] [17] Despite most of Fraser's lyrics "[emerging] in alien tongues", which she sums up as "laziness" and "bad diction", she attributed the album's more identifiable words to Lucy Belle's influence. [15]

The album title was suggested by Lawrence (Hayward) of Denim/Felt, who liked the line from the song of the same name. a b Raggett, Ned. " Heaven or Las Vegas – Cocteau Twins". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 22 June 2018 . Retrieved 30 March 2018. Victorialand is a beautiful album and far from poor. Sure it works to a slower pace than its predeccesors and could be accused of being slightly one dimensional but it sounds so spare and lovely. Simon Raymonde's return for Blue Bell Knoll gave them fresh impetus and their finest album but there was some great releases around those records. The Echoes In a Shallow Bay/Tiny Dynamine ep's (which you can get coupled on one cd making them effectively an album between Treasure and Victorialand) are superb. Also the single between Victorialand and Blue Bell Knoll, Love's Easy Tears/Those Eyes That Mouth is brilliant.

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Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rded.). Virgin Books. p.105. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6. a b c "Heaven or Las Vegas is 26 today". Form. 17 September 2016. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016 . Retrieved 5 August 2017. The 100 greatest British albums". The Observer. London. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016 . Retrieved 3 January 2013. Pitchfork Staff (28 September 2022). "The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s". Pitchfork . Retrieved 26 April 2023. By 1990, when Cocteau Twins released Heaven or Las Vegas—their final album for 4AD, the independent UK label that had shepherded their journey from post-punk mystics to ambient-pop dream-weavers... Heaven or Las Vegas peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number 99 on the US Billboard 200, [3] [4] becoming the band's most commercially successful release. It eventually sold 235,000 copies by 1996, according to Billboard. [5] The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, [6] and was voted number 218 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. [7] In 2020, Rolling Stone listed it at No. 245 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. [8]

Cocteau Twins had spent most of the 80s progressing from jangly chamber pop to the deeply sensuous, abstract sound and aesthetic evident on The Moon And The Melodies, their collaborative album with minimalist composer Harold Budd. Yet 1988's Blue Bell Knoll still feels like something of a stepping-stone. 4AD had suggested that Brian Eno produce the record, but the band spurned the idea, opting instead to build their own studio and produce the album themselves. This is clearly the action of a band straining at the leash to take control over every aspect of their sound. However it's a decidedly front-heavy album, with most of the poppy big-hitters inhabiting the first side of the LP whilst a general sense of poor sequencing is evident. The languid stroll of 'For Phoebe Still A Baby' would have served better as a moment of afterglow towards the end of the work, whilst 'The Itchy Glowbo Blow' just sounds tired; an example of how insipid the Cocteau's productions could sound without a decent tune to flesh it out. a b c d Brown, Joe (9 November 1990). "Trying to Get a Twins Peek". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 15 October 2018 . Retrieved 8 August 2017.

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Road, River, and Rail” was included on the two-disc compilation that accompanied the 2013 book, Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD, by Martin Aston.

The music does sound a lot like the cover image, especially Guthrie's über-lovely guitar-lines that coat the songs with a sweet heady warmth until along with Fraser's voicings they're nearly bursting with beauty, really like only most things this most unique band does here, or ever did - Morton, Rob (2006). Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. New York: Universe. pp. 634. ISBN 0789320746.Actually, the drum machine on "head over heels" doesn't sound too bad because they ran it through a bunch of effects. It sounds a lot worse on "treasure", IMHO, but again, doesn't bother me too much there. Phillips, Shaun (15 September 1990). "Heaven scent". Sounds. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021 . Retrieved 28 January 2023.