Cocteau Twins’ ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ turns 36 on 17 September
4AD released Cocteau Twins’ sixth studio album, “Heaven or Las Vegas,” on 17 September 1990. The dream pop record turns 36 this year.
Cocteau Twins released their sixth studio album, “Heaven or Las Vegas,” through 4AD on 17 September 1990, with Capitol Records distributing the album in the United States. The dream pop record turns 36 this year.
The trio, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie and bassist Simon Raymonde, wrote, recorded and produced “Heaven or Las Vegas” themselves at September Sound, the studio Guthrie set up inside Pete Townshend’s former Eel Pie Studios in Twickenham. The ten-track album opens with “Cherry-coloured Funk” and “Pitch the Baby” and also includes “Iceblink Luck,” “Fifty-fifty Clown,” the title track “Heaven or Las Vegas,” “I Wear Your Ring,” “Fotzepolitic,” “Wolf in the Breast,” “Road, River and Rail” and closer “Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires.” It followed 1988’s “Blue Bell Knoll” and reached number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number 99 on the US Billboard 200. “Heaven or Las Vegas” streams on Spotify.
About Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins formed in 1979 in Grangemouth, Scotland, when guitarist Robin Guthrie and bassist Will Heggie began writing songs together, taking their name from a song by fellow Scottish band Simple Minds. Guthrie met 17-year-old Elizabeth Fraser at a Falkirk disco in 1981 and invited her to sing; her wordless, high-register vocal style became the group’s signature. The trio signed to 4AD in 1982 and released their debut album, “Garlands,” the same year, followed by “Head over Heels” in 1983. Heggie left after “Head over Heels” and was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde, who joined in time for 1984’s “Treasure,” the band’s first UK Top 40 album. Cocteau Twins released two albums in 1986, “Victorialand” and a collaboration with ambient composer Harold Budd titled “The Moon and the Melodies,” before “Blue Bell Knoll” (1988) became their first record to chart on the US Billboard 200. “Heaven or Las Vegas” followed on 17 September 1990, recorded and self-produced at the band’s own September Sound studio, and became the trio’s highest-charting UK album. Cocteau Twins left 4AD after the record and signed to Fontana, releasing “Four-Calendar Café” (1993) and “Milk & Kisses” (1996) before disbanding in 1997. Guthrie and Raymonde have continued releasing music individually since: Side-Line reported on Raymonde’s Bella Union label presenting the debut album by his project Lost Horizons in 2017, and on Guthrie’s ‘Riviera’ EP in 2021 and his 60th-birthday ‘Springtime’ EP in 2022. Fraser also returned to recording in 2022, her first new material in 13 years, as Side-Line reported. “Heaven or Las Vegas” turns 36 this year, still marking the commercial high point of the band’s decade-long run on 4AD.
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