Listening

Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas

Crisp, ethereal beauty, from the masters of the field. The Cocteau Twins’ so often take great steps in differing their sound from whatever its previous incarnation may have been, while still retaining an aesthetic that was always and only theirs: gibberish lyrics (poor diction mixed with made-up words, according to vocalist Elizabeth Fraser), crystal-clear instrumentation effected to its breaking point, littering percussion. And here, in 1990’s Heaven or Las Vegas, they reached a greater breadth of sound than on any of their previous works. Strong and delicate, graceful and penitent, gleeful and steady. Favorite tracks: ‘Cherry-Coloured Funk,’ ‘Fotzepolitic,’ ‘I Wear Your Ring,’ ‘Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires’

biopic

Andrew Womack is a founding editor of The Morning News. He is always working on the next installment of the Albums of the Year series at TMN. More by Andrew Womack

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