Heaven Or Las Vegas

Product Information

The 100 greatest British albums". The Observer. London. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016 . Retrieved 3 January 2013.

Music Direct reserves the right to change the terms of this promotion or discontinue this offer at any time.a b c d Brown, Joe (9 November 1990). "Trying to Get a Twins Peek". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 15 October 2018 . Retrieved 8 August 2017. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Heaven or Las Vegas displays musical evolution, with the music becoming more accessible. Fraser's lyrics were more intelligible; many concerned her newborn child Lucy Belle, particularly "Pitch the Baby", which is about her experience in giving birth and welcoming a child. [12] [17] Despite most of Fraser's lyrics "[emerging] in alien tongues", which she sums up as "laziness" and "bad diction", she attributed the album's more identifiable words to Lucy Belle's influence. [15] Heaven or Las Vegas peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number 99 on the US Billboard 200, [3] [4] becoming the band's most commercially successful release. It eventually sold 235,000 copies by 1996, according to Billboard. [5] The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, [6] and was voted number 218 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. [7] In 2020, Rolling Stone listed it at No. 245 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. [8] Pitchfork Staff (28 September 2022). "The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s". Pitchfork . Retrieved 26 April 2023. By 1990, when Cocteau Twins released Heaven or Las Vegas—their final album for 4AD, the independent UK label that had shepherded their journey from post-punk mystics to ambient-pop dream-weavers... Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rded.). Virgin Books. p.105. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6. Cocteau Twins – Chart History". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on 10 April 2015 . Retrieved 4 August 2017.Heaven or Las Vegas was listed as the 90th best album of the 1990s by Pitchfork, who complimented Fraser's more direct vocals and the album's complex songwriting. [33] It was also included in the 2008 edition of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, [34] and in The Guardian's online edition of a similar list. [35] It was considered the band's strongest work since Treasure by AllMusic reviewer Ned Raggett, who called it "simply fantastic" and successful in creating "more accessibility". [23] a b c Deusner, Stephen (16 July 2014). "Cocteau Twins: Blue Bell Knoll/ Heaven or Las Vegas". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022 . Retrieved 16 July 2014.

Sandow, Greg (21 September 1990). " Heaven or Las Vegas". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015 . Retrieved 29 September 2015. Anyhow…. the CD sounds pretty good for a 1990 release, with surprising warmth for what is probably by then an all digital release (I am guessing here, folks). a b Raggett, Ned. " Heaven or Las Vegas – Cocteau Twins". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 22 June 2018 . Retrieved 30 March 2018.The band took on new familial responsibilities as bassist Simon Raymonde married his first wife, Karen, and vocalist Elizabeth Fraser was expecting her first child with guitarist and co-founder Robin Guthrie. [12] The latter's cocaine habit previously "escalated" during the recording process for Blue Bell Knoll; [13] Fraser and Raymonde believed that the new baby would prove a diversion from Guthrie's dependency and allow the pair to "play [as] happy families." [12] Their wishes did not pan out, with Guthrie relying heavily on drugs as the band developed Heaven or Las Vegas, causing him to experience "deep" paranoia and mood swings. [13] [10] His relationship with Fraser grew increasingly strained as a result. [14] The working title of the song “Heaven or Las Vegas” was “Crispy Fiver Blue,” a joke name that Melody Maker had included in a lampoon of the band’s tendency toward eccentric titles. 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. Even as the band soared commercially and creatively, personally they suffered. Between the release of Blue Bell Knoll and the recording of Heaven or Las Vegas, Fraser gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter, yet Guthrie remained deep in the throes of drug addiction, which made him paranoid and angry. Raymonde mourned the death of his father. Suddenly the stakes for the Cocteau Twins seemed impossibly high. “Fraser named the album Heaven or Las Vegas [as] a suggestion of music versus commerce, or perhaps a gamble, one last throw of the dice,” Martin Aston writes in Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD, implying that the band was close to imploding.

Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas [2003 reissue]". Redsun Records (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 8 August 2017 . Retrieved 8 August 2017. 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.

Contributors

Riley, Danny (1 August 2014). "Cocteau Twins – Blue Bell Knoll/Heaven or Las Vegas (Reissue)". The Quietus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2018 . Retrieved 8 August 2017. Martin, Aston (2013). Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD. London: HarperCollins Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-0007489619. OCLC 853505613.