Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas

Decade - 1990's


Label - 4AD
Producer - Cocteau Twins
Country - UK
Genre - Dream Pop

1	Cherry-Coloured Funk	3:12
2	Pitch the Baby	3:16
3	Iceblink Luck	3:18
4	Fifty-Fifty Clown	3:15
5	Heaven or Las Vegas	4:56
6	I Wear Your Ring	3:40
7	Fotzepolitic	3:30
8	Wolf in the Breast	3:32
9	Road, River and Rail	3:21
10	Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires	5:36

Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas (1990)

I'm a huge fan of the shoegaze genre, the early 90's British indie genre which was basically a merging of noise pop ( The Jesus & Mary Chain) with dream pop (The Cocteau Twins.). Shoegaze took the best aspects of both sounds and made it more whole for me, so while I do like The Cocteau Twins and their ethereal dream pop is pretty, it's just a bit too feather weight for me here.

Formed in Scotland in the late 70's, The Cocteau Twins actually became triplets when the Guitarist's girlfriend (Elizabeth Fraser) joined the mix with her pretty, emotionally textured vocals.

This is a good album, it just doesn't really excite me. I prefer the more urgent feel of shoegaze and so going back to this stripped back feel (which is unfair I know, as it came first) is hard. Lots of good things - lovely vocals, a great and intuitive tension built and released, and some tight songs that know where they are going, and go there well. A nice, cohesive, pretty dream pop album.


Score - 7.5/10

Recommended - Yes