Customer Reviews

Heaven Or Las Vegas

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cocteau Twins was first mentioned to me back in 1985. Years later (2006) I bought a compilation album with a CT song on it (Bluebeard - Four Calendar Cafe). It was the 'stand-out' track on the cd. After buying Four Calendar Cafe I researched other CT cds. I bought Milk & Kisses and then found Heaven or Las Vegas. Heaven or Las Vegas guided me through one of the toughest times of my life. Ms Fraser's amazing voice, the melodies and the constant surprises of lyric and sound the Cocteau Twins hands us are made in another world. What a gift. i have introduced this music to so many people and given it as gifts as i feel everyone can fall in love with this Treasure!

I bought my first Cocteau Twins album in 1984. I was in the 9th grade and ever since, I've been captivated by them. Just about everyone I've ever asked has no idea who they are but when they hear them for the first time, they fall in love with this band. As far as I'm concerned, they are from another, more beautiful world.

This CD is an aural dreamscape. It enhances the atmosphere in any space from the first note of "Cherry Coloured Funk" through the last bar of "Frou Frou Foxes..." The best thing about this set, though, is that the effects linger beyond listening to the CD. If you're in a funk, songs like "Iceblink Luck" and "Heaven or Las Vegas" will elevate your mood. If you're feeling introspective, "Pitch the Baby", and "Road, River and Rail" help you put things in perspective. If you're in a good mood, "I Wear Your Ring" and "Fifty-Fifty Clown" will help you consolidate. Every track is a stand-out and I've never grown tired of listening to it since I bought it in 1991. I think it's this is the best CD of the 90's.

Possibly one of the Cocteau Twins best! It all seems to come together for them on this collection. If you are checking out the band for the first time I would recommend this CD and "Blue Bell Knolls". If you don't like either of these two CDs, you just don't get it!

The Cocteau Twins have created a genre - not to be dismissed as ethereal nice pop, this record is as lush as it is sophisticated as it is intense in its low-swirling bass arrangements. This record seems to be the one in their evolution where the Cocteau Twins strike the balance perfect between electronica and the vibration of the human throat. The double-octave vocal arrangements are painfully good. This record is for me THAT ONE LP in life that is just RIGHT. And I've never seen as fine a confluence between an LP cover and its contents! Sighhh...

I really believe that the Cocteau Twins occupy a very special place in the universe: Creators of the Most Beautiful pop music. In this collection of music, "Heaven or Las Vegas" floats like a cherry-coloured sun at the center of a system of orbiting bodies of already-perfect music. The lyrics are sublime precisely because they are eternally mysterious, both phonetically and semantically. The melodies are singular celestial entities in the musical universe; they are simultaneously obscure and viscerally familiar. Elizabeth Frazer's processed voice may not be operatic, but is nonetheless angelic, as always. But in "Heaven or Las Vegas," her phrases are further developed than previously, as are the sonic qualities of Robin Guthrie's guitars and Simon Raymond's deceptively simple bass lines. This collection of songs is simply, but definitely, beautiful.

The music on this album is some of the best that I have ever heard. Cherry-Coloured Funk is great, but the real highlight for me is tracks 7,8, and 9. 8 is simply one of the best songs I have ever heard in my life. 9 reminds me of hanging out in Paris in a rainstorm. Elizabeth Fraser sings in her own private Esperonto throughout, but what she sings is less important than the way that she sings it. The vocals and the music achieve a sort of sonic symbiosis that is truly rare. I am a musician myself, and this album has really influenced the way I write music. It is a great example of what happens when music and vocals fuse seamlessly to distill and convey pure emotion.

A brilliant album, totally underrated. If I were stranded on a desert island and could only have one album to have with me, this would be the one that I would take.

The first time I heard the title track to this album, I was close to tears. I had never heard music made up entirely of the best parts of songs until Cocteau Twins appeared in my life. The first song washes over you with swirling guitars and soaring vocal arrangements that are the trade mark of this Scottish trio. The multitude of sweet sounds and perfect production sways you from side to side while Elizabeth Fraser's voice trickles up and down your spine (in a nice way.) This is the last album recorded by the band on the legendary label 4AD, and in my opinion, it's finest acquisition. A must for any CD collection.