FEATURED CD - Cocteau Twins : Heaven or Las Vegas

[Duncan Glenday]

Not prog? (What IS prog..?) Still appreciated by many proggers.

Per Allmusic:

Deciding to scale back the overly pretty sound on Blue Bell Knoll while experimenting with more accessibility -- -- the Twins ended up creating their best album since Treasure. From the start, Heaven... is simply fantastic: on "Cherry-Coloured Funk," Guthrie's inimitable guitar work chimes leading a low-key but forceful rhythm, while Raymonde's grand bass work fleshes it out. Fraser simply captivates; her vocals are the clearest, most direct they've ever been, purring with energy and life. Many songs have longer openings and closings; rather than crashing fully into a song and then quickly ending, instead the trio carefully builds up and eases back. These songs are still quite focused, though, almost sounding like they were recorded live instead of being assembled in the studio. Due credit has to be given to the Cocteaus' drum programming; years of working with the machines translated into the detailed work here, right down to the fills. "Fifty-Fifty Clown," starting with an ominous bass throb, turns into a lovely showcase for Fraser's singing and Guthrie's more restrained playing. But the Twins don't completely turn their back on Knoll's sound; "Iceblink Luck," has the same lush feeling and a newfound energy -- the instrumental break is almost a rave-up! -- and everything pulses to a fine conclusion. There are many moments of sheer Cocteaus beauty and power, including the title track, with its great chorus, and two spotlight Guthrie solos: "Fotzepolitic," a powerful number building to a rushing conclusion, and the album-ending "Frou Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires." Possessing the same climactic sense of drama past disc-closers as "Donimo" and "The Thinner the Air," it's a perfect way to end a near-perfect album.

www.allmusic.com/album/heaven-or-las-vegas-mw0000316429

[spacefreak]

I have the unpopular opinion that Costeau Twins are overrated. Their albums sound too much alike to my ears and they haven't survived pretty well. Liz Frazer has a great voice and I think she is rather limiting herself in the role of a 4AD Siouxsie. She is at her best on the first This Mortal Coil album, where she lets her delivery more loose and in her collaborations with Future Sound of London and Massive Attack. "Head Over Heels" and "Treasure" are in my opinion their best releases.

[lovecraft]

I think their early albums are goth nonsense but Treasure is just gorgeous, closely followed by this one and Bluebell Knoll. Never listened to anything after HOLV, they just sort of dropped off my radar after that.

[Trane]

Not prog? (What IS prog..?) Still appreciated by many proggers.

certainly not by me... I classed these guys as electro-pop new wavish crap back then (and let it rest for three decades.... until just now, that is ), but the sample you presented more or less confirmed


neeeeeeexxxt???

[battema]

I like Cocteau Twins (and this album) a fair bit, although when I get a craving for "that" sound I usually reach for Moon & the Melodies first, with Harold Budd.

I also very much dig Guthrie's other work, solo and with Budd. And Fraser does have a lovely/long list of interesting collabs (especially Massive Attack and FSOL).

[Lebofsky]

This is one of my favorite albums of all time spanning all genres. Brilliant and beautiful.

- Matt

[100423]

Not a band I listen to very often anymore. This is album is good but I think Victorialand is my favorite.

[timehat]

This is an unexpected feature! I was obsessed with this band for some time several years ago. They can be a bit samey, as mentioned, and I generally find their albums as a whole fall a bit flat, but they can be wonderful if you cherry (colored) pick the right gems.

[bill g]

I like them. I suppose I'm in the minority, thinking 'Treasure' didn't have a whole lot going on and prefer their later stuff (Blue Bell Knoll is probably my favorite, followed closely by 'Four Calender Cafe', and then 'Heaven...' a close third.) Blue Bell Knoll has a track called Athol-Brose or something that is just killer. (Cico Buff is beautiful as well) I saw them live once, there was some problem and Elizabeth Fraser was singing out of tune for some reason. They were good in spite of that, and people were saying that other times they'd seen them she was much better.

Haven't listened to them in years-when I'm in that sort of mood I generally reach for Stereolab these days, but will have to revisit.

[UnephenStephen]

always loved their song titles.. FCC is my favorite btw.

[UnephenStephen]

i saw a musically unrelated tv show once that described the relationship that EF had with some guy that wasn't Guthrie and who she really loved who was killed, committed suicide or something. anybody know who that guy was or remember the tv show? he might have been some sort of celebrity or political type.

[Digital_Man]

I have one album by this band. I don't think I would call it prog though. I think it's called bluebell knoll. It's ok. I think we should feature a Tori Amos cd. We may as well. Or how about some Smashing Pumpkins?

[3RDegree_Robert]

LOVE Cocteau Twins and my favorite is this album Heaven Or Las Vegas. It was followed up by a good album and then their final album-probably my second favorite MILK & KISSES. The album prior to this-BLUE BELL KNOLL is excellent too. Earlier stuff is pretty good but I think these last 4 are amazing.

[soundsweird]

I have this one, Four Calendar Cafe and Victorialand. I like a few songs on each album. I have to agree with many of the earlier critiques.

[Sunhillow]

Great choice. Great album. The funny thing is didn't we used to think Frazier was singing in a made-language, or a bunch of non-sense in English. Although English isn't my first language, I'm curious to know if the people who listened to CT in the 80s could actually understand her. I sure couldn't. But that mysterious element was part of the appeal.

Now 20 odd years later, I'm surprised to say the lyrics are really nice to sing along to. Make me even think why the band chose to obscure their lyrics at all. They are quite easily found on e.g. LyricWikia, my fav lyric search engine. Try it. It's fun!

[alanterrill]

I loved the Cocteau Twins -they were certainly progressive with a small p, in that they moved from a rather raw Siouxie sounding first album to a more original sound on their second, to a superbly original sound on Treasure -lovely guitar sounds, unique vocals and a different way of approaching the song form . Sure, plenty have done similar things since but at the time they were truly original. They then hit a plateau and continued at the level of Treasure with four consecutive 12" singles (Spangle Maker, Aikea -Guinea, Tiny Dynamine and Echoes in a Shallow Bay ) before seemingly losing their way with Victorialand and Moon and the Melodies (well that's my opinion, but I can see there are many different views here). But each of these 'singles' had four tracks of around 5mins each on them, none of which were on the albums, so essentially they've made two more albums here, hidden way as singles. But progressive in the 'skilled musicians' sense they were not - I remember an early interview where Robin Guthrie was asked about his technique and he didn't even know the names of the chords he was playing -he just arranged his fingers until it sounded nice and went with it! And Elizabeth was very shy and said she had no confidence about writing lyrics so they were a mixture of real words and made up sounds - a great example of naïve art that happened to result in a very satisfying end product.

[saulgoodman]

One of my favorite bands. This and "Treasure" are two gnosis 14's for me.

[gearHed289]

Beautiful music on this record. I'm not all that familiar with them beyond this one. It does become kind of one dimensional over time, but still, nice stuff,and brings back good memories for me.

[Progbear]

I don’t actually own any of their albums, but I do really enjoy their sumptuous sound. Their stuff tends to run together a bit for me, but this is one of their good ones. Frankly, I haven’t really heard any “bad” ones (though admittedly, Garlands and Head Over Heels hadn’t really “arrived” yet). Of the ones I’ve heard, this was one of the ones I was most impressed with (alongside Treasure, Victorialand and the Spangle Maker EP). Elizabeth Fraser is sort of the female, post-punk answer to Jon Anderson in her use of words to create a mood, rather than provide meaning to the song.