Ed reviews the classics
Heaven or Las Vegas: It’s pretty much just heaven
Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins is nothing short of an exemplary album. It is an incredibly compelling collection of ethereal, exciting and cohesive dream-pop songs that transport the listener to, well, heaven.
The album itself is a collection of ten songs that all use virtually the same synth presets and guitar sounds. However, this lack of diversity is not something to scoff at, it is actually the great strength behind the album. Cocteau Twins manage to create ten incredibly unique songs with only a handful of sounds. Some songs, like “Cherry-coloured Funk” and “Fifty-fifty Clown” have a more driving groove behind them, while others like “I Wear Your Ring” and “Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires” are more moody and laid-back.
I absolutely adore the production on this album. The drums have that classic 80s gated reverb, but just the right amount of it. There are a lot of 80s songs that have so much of this effect that it sticks out like a sore thumb and aged poorly, this is not the case for Heaven or Las Vegas. The drums on this album fill up just the right amount of space and leave room for the rest of the instruments.
The guitars and synths on this album are absolutely perfect. They play off of each other beautifully, specifically in songs like “Iceblink Luck” and “Heaven or Las Vegas.” All of the instruments have this great luscious quality that fill your headphones with an array of beautiful, swelling chords.
The real star of the show here, however, is Elizabeth Fraser’s stunning vocals on every single track. The way her gorgeous voice weaves in and out of the songs with these brilliant vocal melodies, dropping poignant lyrics like “Smile and face your wife angry/His life don’t despise what’s in eyes.” Listening to her sing these words with her soothing, tranquil voice really just takes me to another place. Fraser’s vocal harmonies layer on top of each other creating this intoxicating wall of sound that makes me want to listen to these songs over and over again.
Heaven or Las Vegas is what I think every album should sound like. Not the production or the sounds of the instruments specifically, but rather, the level of cohesiveness between all ten songs is really something to marvel at. Each song seamlessly bleeds into the other, but at the same time there is also a clear distinction between each individual song. The band choosing to not use a wide variety of sounds on this album for any of their instruments is one of the great strengths of the album. Rather than trying a bunch of stuff, they did one thing and absolutely nailed it.
9/10
