Heaven Or Las Vegas

I have to confess this is the only Cocteau Twins album i have in my vast labyrinth of sounds and in my humble opinion it is my fave album of any moment. Song titles escape me, indeed why bring them down to words or titles when the music here is totally off this planet and flows like a stream of consciousness from start to finish. Elizabeth Frazer pioneered the glossolalia technique to create a vast layered sonic template around the sounds of words where the words themselves seem to almost morph into each other, thus inventing her own language. Its beautiful and evocative but its also very clever, because although she can write straight forward lyrics, the technique is not to rely on just words and their meaning which most lyricists do, but rather let the sound of the words become the meaning which is then open to the listener's interpretation. Am i making sense?. Its a bit like seeing a parallelogram instead of a square if you will. Its genius really as there have been so many songs i've loved and heard over the years and thought they meant something i actually heard or interpreted, only to be shown the lyrics and it was completely different, almost an anti climax. Ms Frazer knew this when she studied etymology and decided to just sprinkle words onto canvas and then join them up in any order but a grammatical one, going with her subconscious feel at the time. This results in an almost infinite sonic template as she uses her wonderfully unique gossamer voice coupled with Robin Guthrie's sublime sequenced guitars and effects with the fluid bass playing of Simon Raymonde and that ever trusty Roland which almost sounds like a real drummer On Ice Blink Luck. There's also a beautiful detached feeling of travel like on Road, River and Rail which will take your breath away such is the emotion they bring. Sure there will always be CT fans that will put forward their intellectual preferences but don't let them put you off. Heaven Or Las Vegas is simply stunning and their most successful album ever. Get this and then try Head Over Heals and Treasure.

I bought this album years and years ago...and then my sister nicked it. And I forgot about it. But then Amazon had it going in their sale for less than £5.00 so I thought 'why not'? What a classic album. I'm sat here, listening to it now. It just hasn't aged at all. A rare thing with the Cocteau's, just about understandable lyrics, but still with that ethereal winsomeness that is such a trade-mark of all their albums. O.k., I suppose you could say that this is the most 'commercial' Cocteau album. Who cares? It's got some beautiful tunes, some gorgeous productions, some classic songs. From the promising, slightly down-tempo 'Cherry-Coloured Funk', the album moves into the lilting, almost circular 'Pitch the Baby'. After dreaming off, we wake up to 'Iceblink Luck', with that lovely bell-like guitar and melodious bass and glorious chorus. Then, suddenly, 'Fifty-Fifty Clowns', that insistent beat, smooth keyboard chords stepping through up to a climax, wilting vocals behind a wailing guitar, but so smooth and mellifluous. Then we have the almost rousing chant-like `Heaven or Las Vegas'. No idea what she's singing about, don't really care, but it's something about being in either Heaven or Las Vegas. That unmistakable Cocteau bass and guitar, loads of reverb softening the sound to the typical sonic dreamscape. Oh, and then `I Wear Your Ring'. This album just keeps getting better. That lovely, stepping up, almost gasping vocal harmony. `Fotzepolitic', electric twelve string guitars or something, almost an electronic acoustic strumming wall of sound. `Wolf in the Breast', again, a lovely soft melody, with a gently howling guitar, but a harmony that just keeps reminding me, somehow, of late Beach Boys. `Road, River and Rail' is a seriously down-beat track, almost sounding Joni Mitchell-ish, circa Hejira and then, finally, `Frou Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires', a gentle, laid-back start, reminiscent of older Cocteau, blossoming into a fairly conventional (for the Cocteau's) song, finally fading away. A lovely album. The Cocteau's have been so influential. Talking of Frou Frou, I was listening to a Frou Frou album ( Details ) the other day and noticed how much it owed, not only to Bjork, but also to the Cocteau's. This is one fine album which I am very happy to own again.

Well I missed out on this band, even though I was into indie/shoegaze bands. This band and this album always came up in conversations and reviews about shoegaze bands and influences about this genre. So after hearing songs on various playlists and slowly getting into them, I decided to buy the album. I am so glad that I did. It is belter after belter. Unique and brilliant.

I only "discovered" the Cocteau Twins a couple of weeks ago, thanks to Steve Lamacq on 6 Music when he played the whole albumn on one of his shows and I knew then and there, that I had to have this album! After initial excitement after getting said album had died down, I am left with three favourite tracks, 4, 5 and 6 with the latter being on repeat daily , even as I write this (it has a Spanish feel to the rhythm to it) and though it seems to be par for the course, I can't figure out some of the lyrics, but that seems to be accepted as the norm and anyway, I don't care, I just listen to the amazing vocals, sheer magic, so too the music itself, in all its arrangements, the drum patterns to the fore. What is left for me now is to listen to more of this band's music!...but in the meantime, I shall wear my headphones and just be carried along in a swirling marvellous mass of magical music...listening to the whole album of course!...to which I fully recommend!

Bought this for three particular tracks - namely 'Road, River and Rail', the title track and 'Fifty fifty Clown'. When this album was originally released Elizabeth Fraser was just the singer of a band with a cult following. Now thankfully through working with bands such as Massive Attack amongst others her voice is recognised to a wider audience and she is getting the recognition she deserves. For me, This album along with 'Blue Bell Knoll' holds up better than much of their earlier albums probably because the heavy foreground bass that was so dominant on their earlier albums, was toned down to a reasonable level and by this time Robin Guthrie had invested in better drum technology. A great album featuring one of the greatest female vocalists of all time.

It was a gift they were happy with the item

Iconic Scottish band, iconic album. All good.

Sublime love it,also thought four calendar cafe should have been released together as a double album,I know they're about 4/5 yrs apart not sure,but both belong with each other as some of the most other worldly beautiful lost in space music your likely to hear,swirling Effect driven guitar over sublime beats,then Liz Frazers beautiful haunting voice,at her most comprehensible ever,wow !! But it still doesn't make sense,but it does it = beauty,just brilliant,also check out Four calendar Cafe,you won't be dissapointed,they are companion pieces and it's the last album (sadly)that they've released ❤️