Heaven or Las Vegas

Heaven or Las Vegas is the sixth studio album by the Scottish dream pop band Cocteau Twins, released on 17 September 1990 by 4AD. Recorded at Eel Pie Studios (then September Sound) in Twickenham, it followed the band's 1988 album Blue Bell Knoll and was their second release to be issued in the United States through a distribution deal with Capitol Records.

The album blends dream pop and ambient pop with elements of psychedelia and experimental and electronic textures. The composition of Heaven or Las Vegas reflects a shift toward more accessible and structured songwriting, balancing the band's established ethereal textures with clearer melodies and rhythms. Built around Robin Guthrie's guitar work, Simon Raymonde's bass lines, and programmed percussion, the songs incorporated brighter harmonies and major–minor chord progressions that conveyed both intimacy and emotional depth. Elizabeth Fraser's vocals, while still marked by glossolalia and unconventional phrasing, were delivered with greater clarity than on previous albums, a change often linked to her personal circumstances at the time.

Heaven or Las Vegas has since been recognised as one of the Cocteau Twins' most influential works and a landmark in dream pop. It peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number 99 on the US Billboard 200, becoming the band's most commercially successful release. It eventually sold 235,000 copies by 1996, according to Billboard. The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and was voted number 218 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2020, Rolling Stone listed it at No. 245 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Background

Cocteau Twins released their fifth album, Blue Bell Knoll, in 1988. Despite signing a major label deal with Capitol Records, the band declined to promote it extensively but nevertheless shot a video for "Carolyn's Fingers", which was issued as a US-only promotional single.<ref name="4ad" /> The band brought on a manager for the first time as they had run into tax trouble previously. Ivo Watts-Russell, 4AD president at the time, reportedly "didn't care" for their new manager and his relationship with the band began to sour.<ref name=":9">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

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.<ref name="skinny">Template:Cite news</ref> The latter's cocaine habit previously "escalated" during the recording process for Blue Bell Knoll;<ref name="exclaim">Template:Cite news</ref> Fraser and Raymonde believed that the new baby would prove a diversion from Guthrie's dependency and allow the pair to "play happy families".<ref name="skinny" /> 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.<ref name="4ad">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="exclaim" /> His relationship with Fraser grew increasingly strained as a result.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref>

Recording and production

Eel Pie Studios building in 2020

The recording sessions took place at Eel Pie Studios (then September Sound) in Twickenham, London, located in a space owned by Pete Townshend.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":3" /> According to Gary Walker, the environment was "overshadowed by the transience of death, birth and heartbreak".<ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref> In September 1989, Fraser and Guthrie's child, Lucy Belle was born;<ref name="4ad" /> Heaven or Las Vegas was released on her first birthday.<ref name="wapo">Template:Cite news</ref> Of her pregnancy, Fraser said that she gained clarity about what mattered to her most: "Suddenly I had confidence which I'd never ever had in my life, which I consequently lost after I had the baby, because it's such a frightening experience you lose it again and you have to start over again. But it does change you".<ref name=":7">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Raymonde's father, Ivor Raymonde, died shortly after Lucy Belle's birth, as the band were in the middle of recording.<ref name="skinny" /> His passing cast what Raymonde called a "dark cloud" over the sessions.<ref name=":3" /> He recounted: "I was only 27, I was still quite young and he was a very influential guy for me so that was a big blow but, looking back on it, having a major life event happening probably helped the record have that edge to it".<ref name="skinny" />

The album's drum programming was done by Guthrie, the first step in every Cocteau Twins recording session. Guthrie and Raymonde constructed the music before Fraser recorded her vocals.<ref name="wapo" /> Raymonde likened Guthrie's rhythms on the album to hip-hop beats; despite their music being far removed from it, he acknowledged that it came from a "dance-y" place.<ref name="skinny" /> Many of the "mysterious" instrumental effects on Heaven or Las Vegas were achieved by accident, using guitars rather than "omnipresent" synthesisers.<ref name="wapo" /> As a result of Guthrie's decreased time in the studio, Raymonde's playing was more notable and he became more involved in the recording process.<ref name="pitchfork">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":9" /> Raymonde recounted that he would record Fraser's vocals alone for days at a time, during which he first "fully appreciated how amazing she was": "She'd come into the control room and say, 'What was that like?' and I'd scrape the tears away and say, 'That was alright, Liz'. She didn't get off on praise. If I said. 'That was fucking amazing', she'd say 'I thought it was shit'. I learnt not to be too effusive, which was difficult because I was so blown away with what I was hearing".<ref name=":9" />

Musical style

Music critics have categorised Heaven or Las Vegas as a dream pop<ref name=":1" /> and ambient pop<ref name="Pitchfork Staff 2022">Template:Cite web</ref> recording. The album carries psychedelic, experimental and electronic textures.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref> Heaven or Las Vegas displays musical evolution, with the music becoming more accessible, "warmer, and more inviting".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> During the band's narcotic periods, their music became more "ecstatic". They began incorporating syncopated, "danceable" rhythms and immersive synthesiser textures.<ref name=":2" /> Guthrie's guitar work has been described as "chiming", Raymonde's bass work has been described as "ominous [and] pulsing" and Fraser's vocals have been described as "mesmeri[s]ing", along with her high notes have been characterised as sounding "angelic".<ref name=":0" /> PasteTemplate:'s Max Freedman assessed that the band "all but introduced the concept of glossolalia to pop music, and you'd be hard-pressed to clearly make out more than a few passing phrases".<ref name=":11" /> Fraser's lyrics were described more as "unintelligible"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> or "marginally more intelligible",<ref name="skinny" /> with Richard Jones saying that if "you've played Heaven or Las Vegas about 10,000 times you might be able to distinguish the tracks from one or another or even pick on a few of the lyrics".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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.<ref name="wapo" />

There was salvation in [Fraser's vocals and lyrics] too, in terms of helping save her relationship with [Guthrie], the joy of bringing a baby into the world that they could love. It did give them a new lease of life, and it gave the album an energy and vibrancy. It was very easy to make the music.<ref name="4ad" />

Songwriting

The album's songwriting was also improved, with tracks blending major and minor chords to create a more tangible emotional depth.<ref name=":2" /> Heaven or Las Vegas straddled the two themes: "writing songs about birth, and also death, gave the record a darker side that I hear in songs like 'Cherry-Coloured Funk' and 'FotzepoliticTemplate:'".<ref name="4ad" /> Despite being in a "very good space musically" and describing the recording process as an "inspirational time", Raymonde said: "It was trying to mask all the other shit that was going on that we didn't want to stop and think about for too long".<ref name="skinny" /> In a retrospective of 4AD by music journalist Martin Aston, he noted that Fraser named the album Heaven or Las Vegas as "a suggestion of truth versus artifice, of music versus commerce, or perhaps a gamble, one last throw of the dice".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Many of the song titles were described as "vague" and "nonsensical as ever" by the Journal Tribune, such as "Iceblink Luck", "Fotzepolitic" and "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires".<ref name=":10">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The opening track, "Cherry Coloured Funk", is characterized by a straightforward beat, a heavier bass line, a minimalist three-chord hook, and a "melt-in-your-ear melody".<ref name=":2" /> "Pitch the Baby" is a track that has hip-hop elements<ref name=":4" /> and reflects on the experience of childbirth and the joy of welcoming a child, with many of the album's songs centering on Fraser's newborn daughter, Lucy Belle.<ref name="skinny" /><ref name="pitchfork" /> "Iceblink Luck" retained its lush, velvety texture in performance, with Elizabeth Fraser singing chiefly in her lower register.<ref name=":12">Template:Cite magazine</ref> "Fifty-Fifty Clown" was built without the use of synthesisers, despite featuring textures that may resemble them. While experimenting with a newly acquired piece of rack-mounted effects gear, Raymonde plugged in his guitar to assist Guthrie in exploring its capabilities. Guthrie subsequently added additional guitar layers, and the band initially considered the instrumental version complete. However, once Elizabeth Fraser contributed her vocals, Raymonde described the result as "divine".<ref name=":4">Template:Cite news</ref> According to Raymonde, the title track "Heaven or Las Vegas" featured Fraser's idiosyncratic vocal style, particularly her backing vocals, which he considered especially "underrated". The band was confident in the instrumental arrangement, but Fraser's vocal performance elevated the song during the recording process.<ref name=":4" />

"I Wear Your Ring" was likened to a "postmodern Karen Carpenter", with lyrics delivered in an unusually clear manner.<ref name=":10" /> "Fotzepolitic" blended jangling folk-rock guitars with another warmly delivered Fraser vocal.<ref name=":12" /> "Wolf in the Breast" is described by Raymonde as one of his personal favourite tracks on the album. He recalls it as a deeply emotional piece that continues to move him, particularly due to the interplay between his bass lines and Guthrie's guitar work, and described the composition as one that "writes itself".<ref name=":4" /> Fraser's voice conveys a sense of vulnerability in "Road, River and Rail", occasionally cracking with emotion.<ref name=":10" /> Raymonde wrote "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires" the day after his father's death.<ref name="skinny" /><ref name=":3" /> The track was built around Raymonde's piano part and Guthrie's drum programming, to which Guthrie later added layered guitar textures and bass, as Raymonde noted he was emotionally exhausted. Raymonde described the track as difficult to revisit due to its emotional context but expressed pride in the result.<ref name=":4" />

Release and artwork

Heaven or Las Vegas was released on 17 September 1990 by 4AD in the United Kingdom, and in conjunction with Capitol Records in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The song "Iceblink Luck" was released as a single in 27 August 1990.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 4AD later reacquired American distribution rights for much of its back catalogue, resulting in a 2003 reissue solely on 4AD, which was remastered by Guthrie.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A vinyl edition of the reissue was released in July 2014,<ref name=":6" /> which was repressed on 180g in 2020, remastered from high definition audio files.<ref>"Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas". 4AD – Cad 3420. LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, 180 Gram. 2000. "Including a sticker mentioning the sentence remastered from HD audio".</ref> "We've had it in the back of our mind that we wanted to play live again", said Guthrie at the time of the album's release, "so we thought we'd make some of the pieces more like songs we could actually play live [...] We like it better than all our last records. That's why we continue to make more–because if we made the perfect record we'd sit back and say, 'We can't do any better than that'. We think all our other ones are fucking crap. I'm slightly proud of a couple of tracks on a couple of them, but essentially I'm really embarrassed about what we've done in the past".<ref name=":7" />

The band wanted a visual representation that would capture "the ethereal", according to Guthrie.<ref name="form">Template:Cite news</ref> Paul West, of the design studio Form, previously worked with Cocteau Twins on the cover for Blue Bell Knoll. West recruited photographer Andy Rumball, and the pair experimented with various materials to generate a "textural and otherworldly" effect.<ref name="form" /> The final artwork is a long exposure of Christmas tree lights against a colour backdrop, with its typography produced by hand on an acetate overlay. Rob Morton of The New York Sun described it as "a colorful swash of Vegas neon swirling against a deep blue and red sky.<ref name=":0" /> Much of the original artwork was later destroyed in a flood.<ref name="form" />

Critical reception

The album has received critical acclaim. From contemporary reviews, Andrew Perry of Select gave the album a score four out of five wrote that, Heaven or Las Vegas is the Cocteau Twins in their "usual, spectacular and enigmatic context".<ref name="select-perry">Template:Cite magazine</ref> VoxTemplate:'s Roger Morton wrote, "In times when every other pop group is dragging on board whatever chemicals, '60s techniques and hypno-rhythms they can grab in order to achieve the desirable blissed-out condition. It's a good joke that the Cocteaus can get there with such apparent effortlessness".<ref name="vox">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The Journal Tribune gave it four and a half out of five stars and said that, taken in proper perspective, it "can transport its listeners to a land of airy daydreams".<ref name=":10" />

Barbara Ellen from NME rated it an 8 out of 10 and, despite not being a "fan" of Cocteau Twins, she called the album "a beautiful sounding album".<ref name="NME">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Martin Aston's Q gave it four out of five stars, enthusing that "Heaven or Las Vegas is their finest hour yet [...] Ten exquisite moments that make Kate Bush – their only possible comparison – sound as airborne as Motörhead".<ref name="q">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The album subsequently featured in the magazine's "best of the year" roundup: "It's wonderfully comforting how the Cocteaus continue on their inimitable course, blissfully regardless of what's going on in the world outside their surreal reality".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Stephen Deusner from Pitchfork described Heaven or Las Vegas as the Cocteau Twins' "best album", noting how it "explodes in Technicolor from the first melty guitar chords" and sustains a palette of sounds where "every note sounds like a new and richer shade of indigo and scarlet and violet than the previous one".<ref name="pitchfork" /> 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".<ref name="allmusic">Template:Cite web</ref> Maximilian Fritz, writing for laut.de, also gave the album five stars and described the album as a "particularly significant work" in the Cocteau Twins discography, noting that the band "suddenly sounded clearer and more concrete than ever, without losing their spiritual, ethereal qualities".<ref name=":8" />

Legacy

Heaven or Las Vegas peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart<ref name="UKOCC"/> and number 99 on the US Billboard 200,<ref name="Billboard200"/> becoming the Cocteau Twins' most commercially successful release.<ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref> By 1996, the album had sold approximately 235,000 copies, according to Billboard.<ref name="sales"/> The album was the focus of a BBC Scotland programme, Classic Scottish Albums in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The album was voted "Album of the Week" in 13 October 1990 by German radio broadcaster Südwestrundfunk, and in France by radio broadcasters RMC and Radio Nantes.<ref name="worldradiohistory.com">Template:Cite web</ref> According to an article in Pitchfork, the song "Love... Thy Will Be Done" by Martika contains a sample of "Fifty-Fifty Clown".<ref name="Pitchfork (website) - 6 July 2016 - 8 Songs That Sample Cocteau Twins, From Arca to The Weeknd">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was also included in the 2008 edition of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die,<ref name=":0" /> and in The GuardianTemplate:'s online edition of a similar list.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The album was voted number 218 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.<ref name="Larkin">Template:Cite book</ref> The Observer listed the album as the 97th-greatest British album ever made.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Retrospectively, NME named Heaven or Las Vegas the 28th best album of 1990 in a 2016 list.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2017, NPR listed Heaven or Las Vegas 138th of the 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2018, Pitchfork ranked it first on its list of the 30 best dream pop albums.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2020, Rolling Stone listed the album 245th on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2020, Paste named the album as the best album of 1990. Staff writer Max Freedman said: "Atop guitars that gleam like diamonds, pianos that drip like water and a hefty whisper of a drum shuffle, Frasier's voice resounds so beautifully, it's literally stunning. At one point she sings, 'It must be why I'm thinking of Las Vegas,' but 1990's best album is entirely heaven."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2024, Paste ranked Heaven or Las Vegas number 43 on its list of the 300 greatest albums of all time,<ref name="paste">Template:Cite web</ref> and number one on their Top 25 Dream Pop Albums of All Time list.<ref name=":11">Template:Cite web</ref> Heaven or Las Vegas has been described by The Guardian as "the band's most accessible and immediate – one could almost say radio-friendly – album to date". Their reasons ranged from Guthrie's "cut back layers of guitar and reverb", "Fraser's singing being more comprehensible", and "both Raymonde's bass work and the ever-present drum machine". Album tracks "Cherry Coloured Funk" and "Iceblink Luck" were acknowledged as becoming immediate favourites amongst fans of the band following the albums release.<ref name="Cocteau Twins – 10 of the best">Template:Cite web</ref>

Track listing

All tracks are written by and produced by Cocteau Twins.<ref name="LP">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Template:Track listing

Notes

• On the 2014 remastered edition, "Fifty-Fifty Clown" is 3:17 in length and "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires" is 5:48 in length.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.<ref name="LP" />

• Elizabeth Fraser – vocals
• Robin Guthrie – guitar, drum machine
• Simon Raymonde – bass guitar, keyboards
• Andy Rumball – photography
• Paul West – sleeve design

Charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

Chart performance for Heaven or Las Vegas

Chart (1990)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref name="aus ARIA">Template:Cite web N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.</ref>	130
European Albums (European Top 100 Albums)<ref name="worldradiohistory.com"/>	57

2025 chart performance for Heaven or Las Vegas

Chart (2025)	Peak position
Australian Vinyl Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	3

External links

• Heaven or Las Vegas at the Eyesore Database
• Template:Discogs master
• Template:MBrgID