Heaven Or Las Vegas [Remastered] - Cocteau Twins

It is difficult to meention The Cocteau Twins without using the words 'ethereal' and ambient'.I think they always have been and always will be a group you love or hate.In my life I have done both , while they were plying their trade in the eighties up to the mid ninties I had no time for them.It was only when I was older and wiser and I heard 'Iceblink Luck' that I changed mind about them.
They have always been instantly recognisable and unique, not neccessarily easy to do when you are making your music with drums, base and guitar. I guess what makes the Cocteaus so unique is the distorted and twisted guitar but more so Elizabeth Frasers haunting but beautiful voice.It wraps itself round the guitar and of course that does not take in to account her range and what most peole will know about the Cocteaus that much of the lyrics are a gobbledeegook of latin ,Gaelic, made up words and the odd english phrase thrown in to confuse us.How it works I do not know but it does and nowhere is this more obvious than on the beautifully atmospheric 'Heaven Or Las Vegas' their most commercially successful album.

'Cherry Coloured Funk' and 'Pitch The Baby' are typical Cocteau songs.Plodding bass and treated guitar sounding psychedelic with Frasers vocals swooping and soaring throughout the arrangements.'Iceblink Luck' is a favourite rightly so among fans.It has a more recognisable song hook is up beat for a Cocteau song and even breaks into english.It is instantly hummable and even though I have no idea what the song is about it stirs very clear emotions in me..The album is worth the price just for this track and it is as close as the Twins will ever get to rocking out.
Fifty Fifty Clown is gentle brilliance, suberbly crafted and very melodic another favourite of mine and Fraser takes the vocal on a magical mystery tour during this number even sounding like she is half warbling half gargling in parts.'Heaven Or Las Vegas' the title track has beautiful guitar in it,is again melodically sublime and crescendos to its chorus, a rare thing in a Cocteau song. Again vocally it is stirring and moving.'I Wear Your Ring' is wistful and glides to its end as Frasers vocals work there way in and out of the guitar work.
The start of 'Fotzepolitic' is just class.A sublime melodic hook coupled with more unintelligible words.Though the words mean nothing they sound like they could be the most important words you will hear in your life and that is in essence the magic of the Cocteaus, it is actually the music that communicates with you not the words. It is a song best played loud.'Wolf In The Breast' is pleasant enough but does not really move me like other tracks on this album and if there is a weak link I would say it is this track.'Road River And Rail' is smouldering track, haunting and menacing at the same time with some clever subtle key changes in it.The album ends with the oddly titles 'Frou Frou Foxes In The Midsummer Fires'.I have no idea what this could possibly be about or refer to but it is a beautiful track which leaves you wanting more.Perhaps vocally it is the cleverest as Fraser plays many discordant parts in the song,chanting,warbling the high notes and providing atmospheric backing vocals too.A song that is both beautiful and brilliant.
When you reach the end it will leave you wanting more.This is soulful music without being soul music.I would recommend this album to anyone wanting to try something different instead of commercially created bands.The Cocteaus had imagination a quality lacking in much music today.So if you like indie,pop ,emo or classical music I think you could LOVE this.