Cocteau Twins – Heaven or Las Vegas

Cocteau Twins made their start in Grangemouth, Scotland, in 1979, with their name being derived from an obscure Simple Minds song. Their sound mostly revolves around Dream Pop, which as the name suggests is very dreamy in nature. Heaven or Las Vegas is their seventh album being released in 1990 and being one of their more celebrated works. Though I had just recently stumbled upon Cocteau Twins, this is quickly becoming a favorite album of mine.

Although I haven’t committed to another album of their’s yet, I’m just caught in the dreamy trap that this album presents. In the opening track, “Cherry-coloured Funk”, lead singer Elizabeth Fraser just invades your ears with a voice that can only come from an angel with help from the instrumentation. This track, very much so, is a very good sneak peak into what the album has to offer and surprises me that it was never released as a single. A couple more tracks in we have, “Iceblink Luck,” which was released as a single. Now this song is a bit more coherent in its lyrics but that doesn’t mean that the songs in this album are bad because of it, in fact I feel like it contributes to the sweet dreamy sound. “Iceblink Luck” introduces a playful tone and helps to elevate the mood of the album. Its hard to dive deeper into this album as it’s very hard to describe, but its probably one of the best Dream Pop albums in the genre. It’s such a favorite of mine that I play it when I go to sleep sometimes and this isn’t a slight towards the album, but a compliment. I just want to listen to this over and over again, but there are other albums out there that are just as good that I need to dive into.