Customer Reviews

Heaven Or Las Vegas

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ah... My entire life seemed to revolve around this album back in 1990/91. It was my first taste of the Cocteaus and remains my favourite album. It's only 37 minutes long but by the time track 10 fades out you'll swear you've been listening to it for hours, such is the emotional sweep that pervades it and carries the listener along. For me, the standout tracks were Cherry Coloured Funk, Fifty Fifty Clown, Pitch the baby, Heaven or Las Vegas and Road River & Rail. However, after playing those ones to death I 'rediscovered' the other five songs and played them to death too. Ten years later this album remains one of my top two albums of all time (the other being Hats by the Blue Nile). Heaven or Las Vegas was the Cocteau Twins at their finest, though their next album, Four Calendar Cafe, was also sublime, though it marked the beginning of the end. Check out the predecessor Blue Bell Knoll too: the Coc's first foray into keyboard/sequencer dominated sounds and away from the murky guitar and echoes of their past. And if you're REALLY lucky you'll track down the CD single of Iceblink Luck, the single from Heaven or Las Vegas, which features two unreleased tracks on the 'b' side, both of which are gorgeous (and it's quite beyond me why they were left off the album.) Heaven or Las Vegas? Well it sure ain't Las Vegas.

I love this album! I can't express how it makes me feel when I hear it. It is mesmerizing. It floats. Her voice is absolutely incredible. The music is as colorful as the album's cover. The whole album just flows so well. It's too bad there isn't music like this anymore other than a few exceptions.

Highly recommended. No matter what kind of music you are into, it will be hard not to be captivated by this album. It is a classic!

Heaven Or Las Vegas, the beautiful title of the Cocteau's sixth album is a departure from their earlier work. The sound is much brighter and more accessible, but that isn't a bad thing, indeed! Heaven Or Las Vegas is one of the best releases from the Cocteau Twins, and also one of their best selling albums. Elizabeth Fraser's voice has matured somewhat and she sings more in her lower register. She still has the most distinct voice I have ever heard, in combination with the trademark murmuring lyrics. They are much better listenable then on the previous albums, and the Cocteau's would go on with Four-Calendar Café, were the lyrics are almost easy to decipher. Ok, back to the album, here are the songs:

1. Cherry-Coloured Funk opens the album with the great strength of the Cocteau Twins; shimmering guitars and Liz' heavenly vocals carry the song.

2. Pitch The Baby (funny title) reveals a new sound for the band. Liz almost raps the lyrics, and in the chorus you can clearly hear that she sings "I only want to love you". A very impressive vocal performance again.

3. Iceblink Luck was released as a single and for good reasons. The songs sticks in your head with a unforgettable melody. Liz' lower voice dominates and the lyrics are very good listenable.

4. Fifty-Fifty Clown has a strong bassline that opens the song and fades away at the end. It's quit a relaxing song, but not one of my favourites of the album, but still good. You can clearly hear Elizabeth Fraser sing: "Oceans of emotion".

5. One of the best songs on Heaven Or Las Vegas is absolutely the titletrack. A very impressive vocal performance from Liz who sings three dubbed vocal lines! Also a song that sticks in your head if you heard it once. When I heard it for the first time, I inmediately wanted to hear more from this album, gladly I purchased it!

6. I Wear Your Ring is another vocal highlight of this album and has a such a original melody, that you wonder how they come up with it.

7. Fotzepolitic is a fast guitar driven song, an ok song. I want to mention that the Cocteau Twins have perfectioned the sound of their drum machine incredible; listen to their first three albums and then to this one, what a difference it makes.

8. Wolf In The Breast is very easy listening, with some acoustic guitar work. Liz' warm voice wraps around you and doesn't let go.

9. Road, River And Rail takes you on a yourney near the end of this album and this is really one of the best songs the Cocteau Twins have ever released. When I listen to this song, I see myself in a train, speeding trough a spellbinding landscape with a sundown. Pure ethereal bliss!

10. Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires, the epic title of the last song on Heaven Or Las Vegas begins very gently with Liz' whispered vocals and some keyboards. The song seems to drag on a bit, but then the chorus kicks in and you are sucked into a thunderstom of vocals and guitars. Then the song chills down, again with the whispered vocals, but now with the drum machine. Then again, the richly composed song bursts into another thunderstorm, wich fades slowly away. The Cocteau Twins again end a album with a bang and what a ending! In my opinion, this is one of the best, if not the best song they have ever released in their career!

This is a essential recording allready in my collection, and together with Milk & Kisses their best album. I urge you to buy it soon!

I mean the last decade, not this one, although this recording holds up surprisingly well, considering that it has been 12 years since it was released. I remember first hearing this CD coming out of the jukebox at Vezzo's in Philly, thinking "I gotta get this one." It's the perfect CD for whiling away a quiet night. Ms. Fraser's vocals are sensual and inviting, the muscianship is excellent, and the lyrics are just on this side of being understandable, if not totally coherant. The 'Twins left thier Goth constituants behind with this one, foraying ahead with a style that seemed to invoke My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, while eclipsing both of them in content. While "Iceblink Luck" seems to be the breakout hit here, there are also the title track and the first track as well. An essential CD for anyone who loves all that can be music.

From the opening guitars on "Cherry Coloured Funk" to the fading vocals on "Frou Frou Foxes..." (trying to make sense of the song titles is an exercise in futility), the Cocteau Twins--Simon, Robin and Liz--take us on a journey and to a destination we are sure exists somewhere between heaven and Las Vegas. For this effort, they have partially abandoned their extremely mellow sound for one comprised of some elements of pop (i use the word loosely...it's rather difficult to categorize music nowadays). Instruments played (or programmed) are more evident, lyrics are slightly more decipherable, and the overall sound is more accessible than their previous work.

Although "Heaven..." cost the Twins a portion of their fan base, it was my introduction to their work and remains my favorite album of theirs. All the tracks are superb. Personal favorites: Cherry-Coloured Funk, Pitch the Baby (I didn't know people's voices could do that!!),I Wear Your Ring, Wolf in the Breast, Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires.

I would personally recommend this CD to anyone interested in music of any kind. It's what all music should be, feel, and sound like. Think of it as the catalyst that will move you from mediocre to sublime music. Take a gamble on this recording...it's really heaven!!!

This is the Cocteau Twins album that it seems most people claim as their favorite (although my personal fave is the rapturous Blue Bell Knoll). Maybe I'm just thinking of the album cover when I think of this, but the songs really sound like light shows; flowing with burgeoning colored radiance and motion, a dance of light and shadows. Maybe the best example is the title song, which is also my favorite Cocteau Twins song (that's saying a lot!), sublimely pirouetting, piercing upwards and across the heavens like spotlights in the sky.

Liz's vocals on this album are really intriguing; you can once again recognize the occasional word, enough to know that the whole thing is really words and not just vocalizations. But her diction and pronounciation are done so that most of the words remain *just* out of reach, like a dream you just had but can't *quite* remember. It's kind of frustrating, actually! For instance, on the title song, she pronounces "sun" as "soon"--you can tell by the context: "...more brighter than the sun is to me".

The sound has a pretty rich low end, with pulsing electronics holding down the bottom, and Simon Raymonde's mellow harmonizations on the 6-string bass sliding along like water across rocks. Robin Guthrie's luscious 'harp-guitar' is used in kind of spare, subdued ways, weaving a web very simply and elegantly. The only drawback on this album is where it hits what seems to me kind of a dullish spot in the back-to-back "Fotzepolitic" and "Wolf In The Breast," which just don't seem quite as interesting as the rest. Plenty of other people love those songs, though, so maybe I just need to get with the program. The whole album is really subtle in a sweetly engaging way, and I should listen to it more often than I do; maybe then it'd be my favorite too!

I and a friend went to the concert supporting this album at UC Irvine in 1990. It was in the gym. Halfway thru, as we sat in the stands, Lizzie's voice began to pull at us, and we joined the swaying crowd on the floor of the gym, the music swirling around our heads like invisible leaves on the wind. I had heard the previous albums many times, but there is nothing like the immediacy of Miss Fraser's voice. The concert began with I Wear Your Ring. There were four men playing guitars on the stage, and as layered and dense as the music was, the individual voicing of the instruments rose above the sequencers.
The CD version of this tune may not soar as the live did, but the Twins have alloyed a rare blend of pop and electronic music on this disc, drawing as always from an obscure folk catalogue, as on Fifty-fifty clown, which reminds me of an Anglicized Celtic tune, and Road River and Rail, which has a bit of Kentucky Hill ballad in its dark dirge-like approach. I don't care for Fotzepolitic, but I do admit that this is a melody that would be at home almost anywhere, in a Musical or a cabaret. Finally, this disc is the bridge between the Twins of trance music days and the more pop oriented later albums, "Four Calendar Cafe" and "Milk and Kisses". If you are on the brink of discovery of this musical genre, Heaven or Las Vegas is an ideal Lovers Leap.

I and a friend went to the concert supporting this album at UC Irvine in 1990. It was in the gym. Halfway thru, as we sat in the stands, Lizzie's voice began to pull at us, and we joined the swaying crowd on the floor of the gym, the music swirling around our heads like invisible leaves on the wind. I had heard the previous albums many times, but there is nothing like the immediacy of Miss Fraser's voice. The concert began with I Wear Your Ring. There were four men playing guitars on the stage, and as layered and dense as the music was, the individual voicing of the instruments rose above the sequencers.
The CD version of this tune may not soar as the live did, but the Twins have alloyed a rare blend of pop and electronic music on this disc, drawing as always from an obscure folk catalogue, as on Fifty-fifty clown, which reminds me of an Anglicized Celtic tune, and Road River and Rail, which has a bit of Kentucky Hill ballad in its dark dirge-like approach. I don't care for Fotzepolitic, but I do admit that this is a melody that would be at home almost anywhere, in a Musical or a cabaret. Finally, this disc is the bridge between the Twins of trance music days and the more pop oriented later albums, "Four Calendar Cafe" and "Milk and Kisses". If you are on the brink of discovery of this musical genre, Heaven or Las Vegas is an ideal Lovers Leap.

I sort of charged head on this release. One of my friends had recommended this CD to me and I just sort of stored it away in my subconscious. While I was admist on of my CD binges(happens about once a every 5 paychecks though they are becoming more frequent as of late) I ran across Cocteau Twins's Heaven or Las Vegas. The first thing that sprang into my head was: "hey, I have a friend who likes this". Then I noticed the price tag and later thought: "hey, I should buy this". Within moments, I had just purchased a CD from a band that I know absolutely nothing about(which not unusual for me to do. I bought a CD recently just because I liked the name of the band: Red Snapper).

Well, okay the thing about me not knowing anything about Cocteau Twins is half-true. I remember falling in love with Elizabeth Fraiser's Massive Attack track "teardrop" so I just went from that. The results turned out to be quite pleasent. In fact, everything about this album is "pleasent. The music is very lush, filled with a very contemplative, sometimes dark mood. The nice part about it is that it never overpowers the listener. Elizabeth's vocals, though sometimes hard to understand, complement the music. Everything just meshes together well to make for just a good listen.

My recommendation, listen to the album at night with all the lights off and no one else around and let it just fill the room. Its just a great auditory listening experience(even if you can't understand what's coming out of Fraiser's mouth.

It was wonderful finding this cd again..I listened to it, apparently non-stop for months about 5 years ago... it would make me feel pretty, happy, light and ready for anything...
anyone who listens to this will have an internal burst of color and warmth...nothing will ever bring you down again...least of all the small stuff.