Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas (1990)
Heaven Or Las Vegas showcased a more pop-orientated and accessible side to the Cocteau Twins that they hinted at on previous album Blue Bell Knoll. A lot of this was down to improvements in production and songwriting. For a start the vocals and lyrics could be clearly heard, even though some of the lyrics still make no sense, but more importantly the music was brighter and more melodic than previously and this gave their overall sound a more memorable and punchier feel. As per usual with the Cocteau Twins the music is a lush ocean of sound with various delay and phasing effects creating a dreamy and otherworldly feel. Elizabeth Fraser ranks as one of my all time greatest vocalists and by listening to this album you can hear why, on songs such as ‘Iceblink Luck’, ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ and ‘Road, River and Rail’ her voice swoops and soars to high-register notes and back again and making it all sound so effortless. The ethereal qualities of her voice are a precisely perfect match for the wonderful, dreamy soundscapes that guitarist Robin Guthrie and bassist Simon Raymonde create. The end result was the album that the band had been working towards for the biggest part of their career and everything fell into place perfectly for them, presenting an incredibly influential album that has had a huge impact on dream-pop and shoegaze bands over the past 21 years as well as on other various styles of music.
Although the band were one of the flagship bearers of the 4AD label throughout the 1980’s, Heaven Or Las Vegas would be their last album for the label. The band also moved onto a clearer and more stripped-down sound on the wonderful Four-Calendar Cafe but did not quite have same the magic that was evident on its predecessor. Never the less the band left behind a perfect legacy and Heaven or Las Vegas makes the perfect starting point to start exploring their music.
Recommended Songs: ‘Iceblink Luck’, ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’, ‘Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires’
Codeine - Frigid Stars (1991)
Sooner or later in your early twenties, when you’ve left the safe haven of university or college or whatever, the real world is going to smack you in the face right between the eyes and you’re probably not going to like it. It can be a depressing and uncertain time and nothing seems to capture this mood better than Codeine’s 1991 debut album Frigid Stars. Right from the off you know that this isn’t going to be a cheery ride as the stark, minimalist guitars and funeral-pace drums on opening track ‘D’ frame vocalist/bassist Stephan Immerwahr’s world-weary voice and depressive lyrical content. The mood and tempo throughout the album doesn’t alter much, although sometimes spilling over into anger and frustration such as on ‘Cigarette Machine’. But the band use their vision to carry this mood throughout the course of this album from song to song and keep the listener’s attention from start to finish. It can be bleak and depressing to listen to at times but there are moments of melancholic beauty such as the magnificent ‘Pickup Song’ and the beautifully mellow ‘New Year’s’, the latter showing that the band were also capable of writing memorable tunes.
Codeine and Frigid Stars in particular would do a great deal in pioneering that strain of alternative rock quite humorously known as slowcore or sadcore, along with bands such as Red House Painters, Low and Galaxie 500. I could have even included their second and final album, 1994’s The White Birch, instead of this as it is just as good, but I just seem to have more of an attachment to Frigid Stars. During the band’s brief career they managed to leave a dent in the underground yet saw no mainstream success, but have since earned themselves a small legion of cult fans that keep the band’s music alive today.
Recommended Songs: ‘D’, ‘Pickup Song’, ‘New Year’s’