Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas (Album Review)

 

Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas

(1990)


My copy: 2014 reissue by 4AD.


Cocteau Twins are known for pioneering dream-pop through numerous releases in the 80s. Heaven Or Las Vegas came in 1990 as the sixth studio album for Cocteau Twins and garnered the most critical acclaim the band had faced yet. 

A winding passage of echoed and chorus-drenched atmosphere, “Cherry-Coloured Funk” is a cannonball into a newfound sense of energy. Cocteau Twins sought to create an album that could also be performed in a live setting with Heaven Or Las Vegas, building more pop/rock oriented tracks as opposed to the less structured ambiances of their earlier records. 

Even when Cocteau Twins are writing more pop focused tunes, something feels just strange enough to differentiate the sound from other early 90s soft-rock hits. A certain nostalgic tone is maintained in the production and “Pitch The Baby” is brought to life with new-wave bass lines and evocative vocal deliveries. “Iceblink Luck” is a mirage of late 80s synth pop with a perfect blend of obscured guitar. Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals on Heaven Or Las Vegas are something of a spectacle for the utterly incomprehensible nature of nearly every lyrical passage; this however adds a layer of mystique and romance to the already palpable moodiness found within the album’s production. 

Songs like “Fifty-Fifty Clown” or “I Wear Your Ring” revel in more new-wave subtlety with icy synths that balance the warmth of the bass. “Heaven Or Las Vegas” is the most bombastic track with chrouses that come closest to clearing the intentionally dark and smokey vibe of the record. “Fotzepolitic” is a punchy song that glides along as a waltz similar to “Road, River and Rail” which is a more seductive and intimate take on the ¾ time signature. 

Heaven Or Las Vegas has an ethereal sense of identity, one that perhaps teeters on depressing and too repetitive as some steam is lost on “Wolf In The Breast.” “Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires” is a beautiful ballad for piano and voice that evolves into emotional complexity but becomes slightly tiresome when the whole thing is repeated with seemingly no additions being made. 

Heaven Or Las Vegas is tonally an extremely consistent record and features some of the most amazing vocal work of any dream-pop record to date. Your mileage with Cocteau Twins will vary based on how important lyrics are to you. Instrumental-wise, listen to Heaven Or Las Vegas if you enjoy largely obscured melodies and deeply reverberated tracks over a bouncing drum machine.

The 2014 reissue I own is surprisingly expensive, but the 2020 UK reissue has cheap copies available in the U.S.


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