Search - Cocteau Twins :: Heaven Or Las Vegas

Glorious "Mindscape Moodpieces" That Defy Casual Description

DarkCloak | West Wildwood, NJ | 05/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Cocteau Twins are some of the most unique musicians one may ever encounter. Their sound is largely ineffable - something that is not easily defined, elusive, shimmering, yet most lucid. The lyrics are largely unscrutable yet serve almost as a form of a hypnotic chant in the backdrop of sheer ambient engineered soundscapes. To summarize, I really find myself enchanted by their sound and "Heaven or Las Vegas" serves as a great introduction and encapsulate of their overall thoroughput.



The title track has a mesmerizing bent to it that just pulls me in again and again. I find it hard to pull myself from its eddy. It's a fantastic exercise of what happens when pristine production, vocal arrangements, and textured sonic atmospehrics can do when layered in the right combination.



Other standouts are "Wolf In The Breast", "Iceblink Luck", "Road, River, & Rail", "Cherry Coloured Funk", "Fotzepolitic", among many others. To note, the song titles themselves are at both enigmatic, obscure, and alluring.



It's ambient goodness and an astounding encapsulate of some of the most unique music ever."

A mix of heaven and Las Vegas

Hsueh-Min Chang | Taiwan | 05/30/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I think this is a mundane version of previously heavenly Cocteau Twins. Much of the dreamlike quality in Treasure (darkly) and Victorialand (airily) is lost, and Blue Bell Knoll is a more emotionally powerful album. While the songs are still good and Liz's voice is still strong, the listener feels that he is simply listening to songs instead of being engulfed in a mystic atmosphere. There may be reasons to love the Twins' matured sound, but I am one of the people who miss their creative young days."

Captures the mood and sounds of my past perfectly...

Matthew E. Johnson | Wallingford, VT | 09/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Every drifting and floating mood of the warm summer nights and freedom of my youth is captured in the music of this album. It's a wall of sound wonder that anyone who lived on the outskirts of pop and drifted in the melancholy of the early 90's will love."