release date: Sep. 17, 1990
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,06]
producer: Cocteau Twins
label: 4AD Records - nationality: Scotland, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Cherry-Coloured Funk" (4 / 5) - 3. "Iceblink Luck" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "Heaven or Las Vegas" (4,5 / 5) - 6. "I Wear Your Ring" - 7. "Fotzepolitic" (4 / 5) - 8. "Wolf in the Breast" - 10. "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires"
6th studio album by Scottish trio Cocteau Twins follows two years after Blue-Bell Knoll takes a step into more uptempo territory with focus on harmonic melody structure. Alledgedly, the album is released on Fraser and Guthrie's daughter's one-year birthday, which alludes a perfect family harmony that may not be there after all. Guthrie had to spend time in rehab caused by drug and alcohol abuse, and tensions with the 4AD management was just another issue they had to face.
The album is generally considered the band's masterpiece into dream pop. It's also the band's highest charting album in the UK peaking at number #7 on the albums chart list. All tracks are credited the band, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie, and bassist Simon Raymonde, and the album has been enlisted in a number of best of releases of the nineties. This is also the first time really that you're capable of understanding the lyrics by Fraser, who was already renowned for her indistinct singing style up until this. I also find that the production sound is way better here than on any other of their previous albums. Guthrie's guitar with their keyboard-sound and the drum programming together with Raymonde's tight basslines all make up a perfect bright sound that both dwells but only touches on ambient and still create clear and perfect harmonies weighing both melancholy and positivity. Heaven or Las Vegas is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" and it was released to generally positive reviews, but 4AD still wouldn't sign the band for further albums, which from hereon sent the band in the hands of Fontana Records.
The album was reissued and remastered by Robin Guthrie in 2003.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4,5 / 5 stars ]
