Heaven Or Las Vegas

Product Information

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. Putting my heart on the table, I admit this was never my favorite Cocteau Twins album (that honor is reserved for Treasure). However, I know that for many a Cocteau Twins fan, Heaven or Las Vegas is the popular peak. It was their final for the 4AD label (their record company home in England) and it reached number seven in the UK, their highest charting release. a b Aston, Martin (October 1990). "The Cocteau Twins: Heaven Or Las Vegas". Q. No.49. Archived from the original on 20 June 2000 . Retrieved 15 October 2018.

That album is one of two getting a deluxe vinyl reissue this week via 4AD. It’s certainly a pivotal album in their career, but not necessarily one of their best. Did the Cocteau Twins tame some of their wilder elements for American audiences? Or did the prospect of reaching a whole new continent of ears even enter their minds when they recorded these songs? Blue Bell Knoll sounds minimalist, workmanlike at times, never quite matching the rapturous invention of Treasure. It’s their airiest, cottoniest album, with an enticing use of space on the production but with hooks that sound oddly restrained. As a result, it can sound as monochromatic as its album cover. Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rded.). Virgin Books. p.105. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.Martin, Aston (2013). Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD. London: HarperCollins Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-0007489619. OCLC 853505613. Cocteau Twins released their fifth album, Blue Bell Knoll, in 1988. Despite signing a major label deal with Capitol Records, the band declined to promote it extensively but nevertheless shot a video for "Carolyn's Fingers" which was issued as a single only in the US. The album was not supported by a tour. [10] The band brought on a manager for the first time as they had run into tax trouble previously. Watts-Russell, 4AD president at the time, reportedly "didn't care" for the new manager and his relationship with the band began to sour. [11] Instead, they turned all that turmoil and uncertainty into the best album of their career. Heaven or Las Vegas explodes in Technicolor from the first melty guitar chords on “ Cherry-Coloured Funk”. Every note sounds like a new and richer shade of indigo and scarlet and violet than the previous one, and it doesn’t fade until closer “ Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires” descends into silence. If Blue Bell Knoll is spare and ambient, Heaven is supersaturated: lush without being vulgar, luxuriant without being indulgent. Tellingly, some lyrics bubble up to the surface, often loaded with personal meaning: “cherry,” “perfection,” “burn this madhouse down.” On a song called “ Pitch the Baby”, ostensibly written for—or at least sung to—the couple’s infant daughter, Fraser repeats, “I’m so happy to care for you, I only want to love you,” as a sweet lullaby. We may not always be able to understand her lyrics, but that doesn’t mean they’re not important. In fact, her lyrics would never be more vital or confessional than they are on Heaven or Las Vegas, which lends the music added emotional and conceptual heft.

Music Direct reserves the right to change the terms of this promotion or discontinue this offer at any time. Morton, Rob (2006). Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. New York: Universe. pp. 634. ISBN 0789320746. 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. LeMay, Matt (17 November 2003). "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s – 090: Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016 . Retrieved 15 October 2018.

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. Bambarger, Bradley (6 April 1996). "Radio Climate Could Boost Capitol's Cocteau Twins". Billboard. Vol.104, no.14. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p.14. ISSN 0006-2510 . Retrieved 4 August 2017. The songs “Cherry-coloured funk,”“Pitch the baby,” and “Frou-frou foxes in midsummer fires,” were performed live with new arrangements by Elizabeth Fraser during her Meltdown Festival solo performances in 2012. recently reissued these two excellent albums by the Cocteau Twins on vinyl and in a way it feels like the timing could not be more pertinent. The band's influence is evident everywhere from the keyboard-drenched power-pop of recent Beach House to the fizzing rhythmic synth-gaze of The Horrors' latest. They'll even be touched on in the eagerly anticipated shoegaze documentary Beautiful Noise later this year. Yet it's almost impossible even now to view the band as nothing other than an idiosyncratic unit inhabiting only their own self-made soundworld. No artist has been able or even attempted to mimic their style; resting on Elizabeth Frazer's seemingly wordless, melismatic vocals and guitarist Robin Guthrie's maximalist approach to effects including flange, phase, chorus and delay that give the impression of an enhanced depth. a b "Cocteau Twins: 'Blue Bell Knoll' and 'Heaven or Las Vegas' LP Represses Coming this July". 4AD. 22 May 2014. Archived from the original on 13 February 2016 . Retrieved 5 August 2017.

This was the last Cocteau Twins recording to appear on the 4AD label, and was simultaneously released on Capitol Records in the United States.

Smith, Robin (8 September 1990). "This Week: The Next Seven Days in View - Tours". Record Mirror. p.33. ISSN 0144-5804. Music Direct reserves the right to select the carrier and ship method within the terms of this offer. One of the great things about hearing this album in high resolution now is that I can now crank up the music fairly loudly and it doesn’t become a super harsh, nasty listen. In fact, it takes on a fairly nice warmth as I push my little Bellari tube pre-amp a bit on this one. Simon Raymonde’s bass lines pop out of the mix in a percolating sort of way while Elizabeth Fraser’s voice reaches for the stratosphere. Not sure who is playing the drums on this — none listed on the credits, but it sounds like a live drummer, although they could be sequenced — but, whatever / whomever, the drums sound very nice on this too.

Albums to Hear Before you Die: Artists beginning with C". The Guardian. London. 19 November 2007. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013 . Retrieved 3 January 2013.

Contributions

Raymonde wrote "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires" the day after his father's death, [12] and Heaven or Las Vegas straddled the two themes: "writing songs about birth, and also death, gave the record a darker side that I hear in songs like 'Cherry-Coloured Funk' and 'Fotzepolitic'". [10] Despite being in a "very good space musically" and describing the recording process as an "inspirational time", Raymonde said: "It was trying to mask all the other shit that was going on that we didn't want to stop and think about for too long". [12] In a retrospective of 4AD by music journalist Martin Aston, he noted that Fraser named the album Heaven or Las Vegas as "a suggestion of truth versus artifice, of music versus commerce, or perhaps a gamble, one last throw of the dice". [18]