Heaven Or Las Vegas

Another good album, and one that I hadn't heard of. Equally good for having on in the background during work and for actively listening to. I don't quite get why I like it, it's definitely an overall construction thing rather than any specific part of the music or individual track being out of this world. Her voice is nice, the stuff behind it is verging on psychedelia. And it's really consistent, solid tracks pretty much from start to finish. Top end of a 3, missing a standout element, but I will be listening to this plenty more.

2/10, 20%

This gave me late 80s Spice Girls vibes and I wasn’t mad about it

Cocteau Twins: proof lyrics don't matter when the voice is an instrument in its own right. Can't understand a bloody word. Nice though

On est désolé pour les Cocteau Twins d'assister à une telle quête d'identité. Après s'être partiellement émancipés de l'âme de Kate Bush, ceux-ci se sont fait envoûtés par celle d'Abba, avant de se faire rattraper par celle de Jean Cocteau. Quelle tristesse...

Les Cocteau Twins nous proposent une nouvelle fois leur bouille Kate Bushesque pendant 30 bonnes minutes, avant de se décider d'enfin lancer leur album sur le dernier titre. Totalement insuffisant, ce qui leur vaut un 3/5 affable.

Enjoyable listen

This was a challenging 1001 listen for me. Treasure is without a doubt the pinnacle of my 1001 albums experience so far. It is something I will hold close for all time. It may have even wiggled its way into my top ten albums. So to park another Cocteau Twins review alongside it isn't really fair. Soaked in reverb, with a few more audible lyrics that I was expecting, Heaven or Las Vegas is a nice foray into the landscape that bridges the 80s and 90s. I can hear sections that influenced bands like Belly and other charming Indy acts. Is this the birth of shoegaze? It is lovely and easy, but not my favourite child.

I really enjoyed most of this - some lovely melodies, great mood-setting songs.

This is pretty good. It's a little dreamy, but enjoyable. Ice Blink Luck was really good.

Nice to have on in background. Pretty chill. Can't really remember much of it now though.

Good but got old after a while, however it sounded great.

80s dream pop. Relaxing.

Preface - I did not listen extremely closely. Was kinda on as just background noise. This is really chill background noise though. Very nocturnal feel - great for night drives with the windows down and a slight chill. I’m sure this is a lot better than I’m rating it, I just can’t give it any higher from my personal first listening experience.

I expected better from this album because I really love the opening track! But it ends up being quite one note and the rest of the songs don’t seem to capture the catchiness and shit of cherry coloured funk

Sounds like something found in a “Garden State” soundtrack, not the era where hair metal, east coast/west coast, and grunge all met in a musical melting pot. Has vibes of ABBA and the softer songs from the Cranberries, all while having strong French overtones. It’s a chill album that could be thrown on in the background of a slow evening and not be at all distracting.

Very ethereal, good background music. Probably wouldn't listen to it more actively

Quite enjoyed this. Another bit of a nostalgia trip. Was never a big fan, but reminds me of listening to Peel waiting for the Cocteaus tracks to finish to hear what delights were in store afterwards. Some nice tunes in here (Iceblink especially), but I found the nonsense poem lyrics bit wearying by that point. And the warbling vocals, if done by Mariah Carey would have put me off right off the bat. As mentioned, some good tunes, but the 80s flange & chorus all over everything really dates this album.

Dreams have become demoted. Throughout history, humanity has sought meaning in their somnolent imagery. Traditionally, people deciphered ambiguous prophecy in reverie, and psychoanalysis held that the more furtive secrets of the individual psyche revealed themselves during dreams. Nowadays, the scientific consensus believes that dreams mean nothing whatsoever, and they are just the result of random synapse firing during sleep. Your bowel movements say more about you than your dreams. But what about dream pop? For those outside the cognoscenti, dream pop is a style of indie that evolved in the eighties, which made melody-driven guitar pop smashed up with reverb, echo, distortion and whatever all the sliders on the mixing desk could do. This also tended to strip the singing of its diction, making the lyrics incomprehensible and the vocals just part of the music's multilayed texture. The resulting emphasis on exquisite, woozy noise made the music appear more emotive than intellectual, focusing on a blissful soundscape rather than lyrical didactics. Well, that's the standard critical line. Critics have raved about the transcendental nature of dream pop (and its sibling shoegaze), how it replaces meaning with ecstasy. Me, I feel some scepticism on my tongue. Dream pop's wilful indistinction usually produced tracks ("songs" doesn't seem the right term) that sounded pretty indistinct from each other. I know that is a partly intended effect, and that it facilitates the understanding of the album as a piece, but I care naught for intentions. It may be an unintended consequence that dream pop's homogenity could induce boredom, but it is still a real consequence. But anyway, the Cocteau Twins were a Scottish indie group that were one of the major pioneers of dream pop, especially with Elizabeth Fraser's indecipherable singing. This, their most celebrated album and the signature album of their label 4AD, exhibits the strengths and weaknesses of dream pop: it has moments of sublimity, but those moments are muted by dull passages that counterintuitively sound rather like the good bits but not as good. The album peaks halfway with the title track, but then gradually yet continuously slips further and further into languor as the album progresses. In their attempt to make the definitive Cocteau Twins' sound, they forgot to add other sounds, leaving their sound sounding less special and more superficial. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. For comparison, when writing the review I also listened to Treasure, the other Cocteau Twins album on the list. Though ther best seconds on Treasure are perhaps not as beautiful as the best seconds on Heaven or Las Vegas, it does have the benefit of divergent tracks. I'll deal with Elizabeth Fraser's voice when I get to reviewing that album. That alright with you?

thought it was good - not knowing what the hell was being sung stressed me out though but I did enjoy the dream pop sound and vocals

Meh

A beautiful vibe. It's really chilled - I can imagine lying in a grassy field of daisys under an old oak tree whilst looking up at the sun and the birds floating between the powdery clouds, sipping from a lemonade. It's a bit 'repetitive' though, repeat listens gets a bit boring.

Dreamy electronic indie, quite calming

Klinkt wel geinig. Doet soms een beetje aan AbbA denken, maar is ook weer zoveel anders eigenlijk :-). In het algemeen is de zang en de muziek mij iets te wazig, maar het blijft ook een soort van boeien.

If you decide not to linger here with the Twins, there are three roads: noise, pop songs, indistinction. Meritorious music in all directions, and Heaven or Las Vegas itself flows without trying to cohere a concept. It's an important stop, but nonsense with distinction has distinct shortcomings (the closing track definitively not among them).

this album to me sounded like a mixture of ABBA and a little bit of enya. it was nice i liked it.

I remember this group as a teenager but it was so out of my sphere of listening that I'm sure I'd dismissed them out of hand - but I really like it. Parts of it sounds like ABBA meets The Sundays :) There's still an unavoidable late-80s production value to it but I suspect this album would hit much differently and not as well if it didn't have that aspect. Dreamy yet accessible, happy (as far as I can tell - I couldn't pick out anything in terms of lyrics :D....), hypnotic. Simply enjoyable. 7/10 3 stars.

Easy listening while bopping around the house.

I really liked how it started but I grew less and less impressed as it went. Not bad and the good parts are really good though. I'd just rather listen to the choice cuts.

Solid easy listening, not too ambitious. Maybe a little over compressed. Drums seemed to lack transients, but that makes it less edgy and thus more accessible. Melodies were solid and sound design seemed in line with end of 80s synths, instrumentation, and safe mixing.

Seems OK, not really my main jam, but I can appreciate it. Mazzy Star vibes.

dice.blink.luck in What3Words is near Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire.

i choose the middle way

Ethereal pop music at its finest

This oddly feels the way listening to Happy Mondays feels—like a farewell to the 80s.

Light, airy pop tracks with an almost shoegaze quality to the vocals. Within a couple songs you'll be able to tell if you'll enjoy this album or not.

Yeah ok, seemed like generic 90s electro

I’ve heard the first track on this album a million times but never knew this is what it was from. Overall though, everything except that song kinda blurred together but I liked the essential 80s vibe despite being from 1990

As admirable as the project is, it is hard to escape two fundamental factors: one, the tracks somewhat blend together and lack a distinctness which might make the album more interesting and two the vocalists are singing underwater with marshmallows in their mouths making it impossible to work out any sense of meaning to the lyrics. I found the whole thing quite elusive, despite enjoying much of the overall mood which at times could be quite beautiful.

Nice atmosphere and instrumentals, kind of boring and repetitive aside from a few stand-out tracks though.

An interesting album that was somewhat unnerving to me. Most times, I can place exactly what emotion an album/song gives me but this album had me borderline disoriented. I don’t think I’ll go back to listen to it, nor do I think it will become one of my all-time favorites but it was a cool album to listen to.

Not bad background music, but too atmospheric and slow to catch my attention.

Couple of recognizable songs but not something I'd listen to all the way thru.

5/10/2022 - ALBUM #104 Today's Album: "Heaven or Las Vegas" by Cocteau Twins - This may be the most unique album to come out of the generator thus far. It isn't really that it's incredibly inventive or really does anything shocking, but it just has a really unique atmosphere to the sound and the production and mixing, despite being subjectively poor, add to the experience and tone of the project. Each song has a similar sort of laid back bass and drum beat joined by a very ethereal, hazy, synth. The chord structure is usually pretty basic, but there is a really cool hazy atmosphere created by the instrumentation and the vocals sort of float above as unintelligible murmurings. I usually have a problem with vocals I can't comprehend, but they're so unintelligible here I am just really ignoring any of the lyricism and I have to say, the vocal melodies in the choruses work really well due to this sort of incomprehensible mumbling. I also think it's aided by whatever post production is being placed on the vocal track to make it so washed out and hazy. Now, there are moments where the lyrics do shine through and I like these moments a lot. For instance, Pitch The Baby has a really infectious hook singing, "I really want to love you" and I really like the chorus of Heaven Or Las Vegas, which is a highlight among the track list because of it's clear vocal delivery. I think there are a lot of tracks outside of the highlights that sort of get boring and drone on for a little too long, but I think it's entirely missing the point to judge this kind of ethereal music for it's structure and not it's overall vibe. Once I judge it for that, I really just like this album as something to put on in the background and forget about. All the performances are great and it's obvious there is a strong attention to the mixing and mastering on this project. Overall, this is a great introduction into shoe-gazy, ethereal, pop rock and it's vibe is immaculate enough to bump up the final score by a half-point. Listen to this one if you like a spacey and chilled out vibe album and want something a little different. Highlights: Cherry-coloured Funk, Pitch the Baby, Heaven Or Las Vegas, Frou-frou Foxes in Midsommer Fires Score: 7/10 Decent Ethereal Rock

Really lovely but it just lacks the excitement of Treasure

Pretty slick for 1990

Not really a fan of this dream pop genre. The songs are fine, most of them have great hooks and interesting composition, but it all sounds way too similar to me, thus making the songs very forgettable. It's one of those - quite nice when you listen to it, but barely remember anything afterwards. So in that sense it falls into "OK" category.

Je ne connaissais ce groupe que de nom. Riches arrangements, très belles couleurs. Le chant est versatile et accrocheur. Les chansons sont assez semblables et versent un peu trop souvent à mon goût du côté pop de la force. Mais très agréable. 3/5 à cause de la redondance et du fini pop qui, à mon sens, atténue l'originalité de l'orchestration.

It's beautiful and esoteric. And one of the best singers that's ever graced this earth. But this album is just not their best work.

I don't know what the lead singer is saying most of the time on this album, but I like her voice. Pitch the Baby is so quirky, and again - I've listened to it twice now - I don't know what she's saying. It's English though, and I like it. So there you go. The rest of the album continues on in this style. That makes it hard to review much higher than a 3.

Insistente pero interesante

It was ok, as noted in other reviews largely incomprehensible lyrics

It’s easy not as good as treasure probably deserved a few more lessons I’ll give it three stars for now

Great voice, melodies, harmonies. Conor thinks band is a bit boring. Very nostalgic for Bill. Shannah wasn't really paying attention but like the background noise. 3.5/5.

Background music

decent dream pop, prefer beach house though

This one took some time but it really grew on me. Once I stopped trying to understand the lyrics and just accept the vocals as 'instrumentation', the record became really beautiful and blissful. 6/10

singin on a feebo streeee, I want to love a gomba gom gombee gets me every time

I love an album with a vibe. This has that. Nothing really memorable or very interesting, but it has a definite vibe, and I'm all in for that. 3

Synth dream pop! Don’t mind if I do! Some nice stuff on here for sure!

Really enjoyed it, love the sound, but all the tracks almost blur into one for me. Different tunes didn't seem to have much identity, it takes one thing and does it well but gets a bit samey. Maybe a 4 with time but a high 3 for now.

Sounds very much like the alternative scene of the 90s pretty reminiscent of the pumpkins

Buen disco, bonita voz de la cantante. No conocía al grupo pero no creo que lo siga, demasiado dream pop para mi gusto.

Was okay, again not something I would listen to often.

So the Cocteau Twins learned a thing or two between 1984’s disastrous Treasure and this album in 1990. I was not pleased when I saw the twins pop up again. However upon listening, Heaven or Las Vegas is decent. The album unintentionally came on during my car ride this morning after listening all the way through yesterday. I didn’t turn it off. I’ll even say that I enjoyed hearing parts of it again. The Cocteau Twins might be the most improved band of the 1980s.

nogal sferisch enya achtig

I was excited to listen to this as I have not heard of Cocteau Twins, and I love alt rock/dream pop music. I wasn't let down, I really enjoy the dreamy very 80s/90s vocals and the vintage sound to it. It has given me great vibes and it's very relaxing and happy. The only problem is that the songs are all a bit too similar and one-noteish and I love hearing the lyrics and feeling all the feels. I am feeling feels for sure but not to the max because I can't tell what she's saying which I both love and dislike. So I'm a bit confused. Therefore, a 3 seems only appropriate.

I'm fairly neutral about this one. It was fine but nothing amazing.

Not best but good

Didn't think I would like this band and I'm not sure if I do, but this album was better than I expected. I'm not one to enjoy electric drums or dreamy synth pop, the songs were easy to listen to and kept me engaged, but are they memorable? Time will tell.

Very dream like. Something completely different for me. Can't understand the vocals but they seem to blend well so feels more like an instrumental album to me.

Very dreamy! It was a bit same same at times, but I still enjoyed it. I especially liked 'Iceblink Luck' and the title track - great basslines and use of synths.

Dreampop

Nice Friday morning album, ethereal and poppy.

This is probably brilliant if it’s your kind of thing but I just can’t get into the music - the kind of high toned, cascading orchestration kind of exhausts me.

3, very pleasant.

It didn't start out as something I liked, but there's a floaty weirdness to it that resonates. It's not incredible but it's not bad either.

Definite 90s vibe.... Hard to dislike but did not capture my heart

Didnt mind this one, glad i had a listen.

Typical 90s girl band

Regular

Sounds like the soundtrack to a John Hughes' movie - but one that went straight to VHS. Soft focus, Thanksgiving turkey/Christmas lights and a couple of lessons learned on the way. I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing. Best Tracks: Iceblink Luck; Heaven or Las Vegas; Fotzepolitic

A bridge album between 80s and 90s

Quite enjoyed listening to this. 3*

Quite liked it. Although more on first listen. Got a bit samey on subsequent play-throughs.

Nice album to listen to. Lots of interesting tracks. Not really my thing but didn't mind it at all. I was expecting to dislike the whole thing.

Interesting. I think the description dream pop is quite fitting for this one. The songwriting is interesting and the execution pretty good. Unfortunately, it's just not really a style of music I enjoy.

Sophisticated Pop. An extensive use of electronic keyboards, synthesizers, and polished arrangements. It sound very 80's instead of 90's. (6/10) Favourite Track: Cherry-Coloured Funk

It was totally not what I was expecting. In a good way. But a bit too dreamy for me.

I really like the sound, I just wish I could understand the words. The album reminds me of ABBA if they had made less disco songs and more dreamy songs. All the songs have a nice pop feel. The main gripes are that the songs tend to sound like each other in addition to the problem mentioned about the lyrics. Favorite track: Cherry-coloured Funk

The first song, Cherry-coloured Funk, is leagues ahead of this album. I don't really care for it other than that because the first track is way too good. The instrumentation and vocals are all pristine in the album and adds to the dreamy feel of the album. It's just unfortunate that the rest of the album is disappointing compared to the first song. Highlights: 1.

Pretty good. Nice in the background but nothing standout.

Sounds like something you'd find in a Sofia Coppola movie and that can only be a good thing.

I liked this one a lot. It was really ethereal and spacy. It didn't have any "bangers" but I did look forward to listening to it.

WTF are these women saying half the time? Now I see where Beach House came from The title track and last track are a whole vibe

Like the vibes on this album a lot. I do wish I could understand literally a single lyric though. It’s impressively Scottish.

Good background noise.

goed voor achtergrond, but not that special

3.1 tof niet speciaal maar eens een leuke listen. heb wel het gevoel dat elk nummer naar iets opbouwt maar die climax komt wel telkens niet

Really enjoyed it. It's going to get quite a few more listens for sure. Cherry colored Funk absolute classic.

First few seconds in it feels like a grower. I hope I’m right cause those albums are usually the best. Well I added it to my favorites, going to need a few more listens though. Tbh I kinda found the vocals a bit annoying, can I say that? I guess I just did.

For whatever reason, I wanted to dislike this. I think I wanted to unleash a low score on some unwitting long forgotten band. Just to feel like I have some agency with this thing. Like I have some control over myself and my opinions. Sadly, not the case. I found this inoffensive. I didn’t particularly dig it but I quite enjoyed some of the vocal lines and airy guitar riffs. We doing this again guys? Another 3? Yeah why not.

This album sounds like pop from another planet - "otherworldly". If one wants to escape reality for just a little while, all they have to do is turn on this album. Very nice!

I had heard of this band but wasn't familiar with their music until I just listened to this album. While I'm not really into synth-pop, their sound has a little more edge to it, and Elizabeth Fraser's voice is incredible. Just on a purely subjective, personal preference basis, not too into this, but can understand their appeal.

Spare, waifish, and sheer as a silk stocking. This is music to evoke an atmosphere; a blurred photograph; the hazy memory of a holiday past; a long-forgotten contact whose number is still in your phone. I suppose from that list you might ascertain that this speaks to me of the ephemeral nature of remembrance, how it drifts and reshapes itself, ultimately leaving behind a residue of the actual experience. But also, it’s probably not that deep.

I don’t know what the fuck language they’re speaking, but this is nice dream pop, if you like that sort of thing.

Fairly standard synth pop with a good voice on top. Need to work on their lyrics though. Songs don't really go anywhere or not anywhere I want to go. Singer elevates them to 3 stars.

Not bad, didn't mind cherry-coloured funk and a couple of others. But not sure I'll come rushing back for another listen.

Kind of forgettable background easy alt-rock. The sort that will probably get better on subsequent listens, but nothing special at first.

Kinda into this.

Gave me 80's vibes. I appreciated it.

Never heard of this band before. Perfectly pleasant.

Nooit eerder van deze cocktail gezusters gehoord, maar prima op smaak gebracht met Cure-achtige gitaren en licht zoete zanglijnen.

syntwave achtig. Wel fijn om naar te luisteren

Fine

OK but just OK

Impressed. Knew nothing of them prior. Nice pop-y album!

Ethereal and soothing.

was alright - can see how it's a grower and decent enough in the background. 3 saved to my music. average.

Suffers from not being Treasure, but its Cocteau Twins, so its well above listenable

Unremarkable, inoffensive and over produced. Alright background music.

It was pretty good, I liked the dream-pop sort of style it had going on for sure.

Up and down. Some beauty in there for sure.

A couple of songs I liked, but most of it was just OK background music.

Listenable. Dream pop shoegazy stuff

Another good one, on a bit of a roll. I knew what they sounded like but never heard a whole album before, it was well put together

So, knowing the Cocteau twins had 2 albums on the 1001 list, I listened to both of them in the last few weeks. This one is more “accessible”. Elizabeth Frazer is a talented, diverse vocalist, especially when she doesn’t sing words. There’s lots of multiple vocal overdubbing and harmonies going on, (the title track sounds like Abba). I’m not sure how they handled that live. Anyway, I preferred their 84 release which was more cutting edge so I won’t give this too high a score.

Throw the Cranberries and The Cure in a blender...

Un disco de nicho con una música muy característica. No es mi estilo y es una música que necesito escuchar más para poder valorar.

this album reminded me a less talented ABBA.

Soft, rätt skön

Dream pop...

I had no idea what to expect going into this. It was... fine. Nothing spectacular or mind blowing.

Pretty chill background funk

it was interesting, not my favorite album, but some songs were good.

90s meets psychedelic. Not bad

Not bad, really. Very easy listening, I like their voices, and overall, this was pretty all right.

interessante

Relaxing, but not as good as their later work. Decent album though.

3-3.5/5 silky dream pop.

Not bhed. Gave me Beach House vibes

Enjoyed it even if the lyrics were nonsense, the music was good!

Oh boy, aesthetically pleasing but couldn't understand the lyrics.

Dreamy shoegaze. It's the sound of san junipero

Ok album. Pretty cookie cutter 80s/ early 90s. Nothing groundbreaking but nothing bad

The 1990's version of me would probably have enjoyed this more.

Punky rock. Not something I'd listen to regularly, but nothing offensively bad.

Not that bad... not my style too much, but an easy listen for sure.

Decent, lite emo , bra prodd förutom trummor som e väldigt 90s

not bad. not the mood i was in.

What an unbelievably difficult time it was to piece together the lyrics.

Trevligt men inget speciellt.

sounds decent but my left earbud is bust

Not my type of genre personally, same thing as the Brian Eno record, so my opinion isn't really valid here

I was excited to listen to this. I've heard/ read a lot of good things about this band. That was a let down. I feel like I was hoodwinked, bamboozled even! It was boring, repetitive and didn't say anything. My wife was in the car with me and wanted to know what this was. It just kept going and the music was just a drone to me. Such a letdown.

The description of this band is just as esoteric as the sound. Not sure what they're saying most of the time but easy listening.

Riktigt b

Nothing for me here.

Meh.

This was pretty dull, and the gibberish lyrics were no fun.

4/10

Normal

I do acknowledge the interesting sounds that are present here, and if this is your thing, that kind of shoegaze pop thing, then I fully uderstand why you'd like this. Me, however, not my thing. I find all of the songs a bit too alike, and though at the time it may have been more interesting, I feel it's quite "vanilla". The early 90's obviously still had a lot of 80's in them, which is for sure the reason this kind of sound just doesn't resonate with me. It's why Nirvana is one of my favorite bands ever, cause they just shook things up completely in 1993. Can we please get an album like that next? Please? Website? Please?

I kind of liked the title track but that's it

Tis was a disappointment

Normal. No sé qué me esperaba con el nombre del artista, pero me dio muchas vibes a taylor... Por lo menos la voz.

Ethereal vibe but didn’t engage with me at all.

3 - kinda crappy atmospheric jangly stuff

This didn't really appeal to me. It's ok but I just don't it a bit dull and the whispery high vocals are not my thing.

5/10

i cannot believe this album gets gassed like that...it was fine but i wasn't gagging. let me go back to tears for fears

For some reason, I had mixed up Cocteau Twins with Aphex Twin in my head this morning and put this off because I didn’t want to listen to Aphex Twin. This is not that.

Not a fan, could barely understand their singing.

No me encanta. He tenido la sensación de flotar o la de estar en un sueño muy raro, de los que te despiertas en medio de la noche, es hipnótico casi, pero aún así no me ha enganchado, puede ser que yo no termine de pillar la vibra. Alguna canción por separado todavía, pero el álbum completo infumable, pero repito, puede ser que no este en un momento en el que pueda conectar con esta fantasía rosa. pero tengo que admitir que los vocales son buenos

sigh. i've heard great things about this band but i just don't go for these washed-out records. it just sounds like a wall.

They are a better band than this record. They sound so much better in person

Don’t know

alright I guess? honestly not really feeling it. 2/5.

*Too dreamy and low key...Cocteau Twins are just not for me

Yet another shoegaze/dream pop essential that I can't get into

To many effects on everything, the instruments and voice, throughout the songs for me to get in to it. There is definitely something there that I like as well but it just gets drowned out with effects that I don't really enjoy.

A resounding Meh from me. Not my jam.

French Shoegaze, not bad

Bleh

Feels very dream pop to me. This is so boring. I may just be in a bad mood today but I can't stomach this album. It doesn't seem horrible but I am unable to finish it.

Directamente simplemente no siento nada al escucharlo a parte de que posiblemente sean buenos para leer 🙏🏼🙏🏼 no me causo nada en realidad, no sentí ninguna canción memorable PERO ya lo agregué a mi lista de lecturas so

Sort of a KD lang sound, not great

80's electronic dream pop. It is very atmospheric and has a lot of texture, the bass lines are pretty cool but her voice doesn't do much for me. I feel like this is an album you need to be in a certain mood for, it's not something you are going to play in the background to get stuff done. I would just put something by The Cure on

With the amount of, "Best Albums Ever," lists this album has made it on to, I cant wait for this album to be over and I have two songs left as I type this. This couldnt be farther from what I enjoy. Thats not to say similar music hasent caught my attention but this album just drags on. I cant understand any of the lyrics and im not intrigued enough to look into them with such a repetitive sounding album. Nothing surprising or new in any song. Almost every song sounds the exact same. Second Listen: okay apon learning that the lyrics are more than often just glossolalia and I need to focus on just the sound I decided to give the album another listen. I still mostly stand by my point that the majority of song sound super similar. Massive room filling pads and everything sounding at about the same volume. Its all a bit too much and makes it less enjoyable. Still the last song was my favorite with how sonically different the intro, chorus and bridges were. Im just never really in the mood for music that makes me feel like im in a black light felt poster or the liminal space of an empty mall. Would say 1 - 1.5 stars.

Enya mit Gitarren.

Been meaning to relisten to this one, and I actually liked it less this second time around. It's fine, but Dream Pop is so completely not my thing. Nearly put me to sleep. There were a couple moments where my ears perked up, at least. Just not something I would ever choose to listen to unless I was in a very, very specific mood.

When everything is the same, nothing changes.

The music wasn't bad, if not a bit repetitive. The vocals were meant to be, ironically, clearly on this album (makes me wonder what they are like on other albums), but I couldn't understand them at all! I can accept that the vocals are just another instrument, but unfortunately (for me) it was a blend I did not enjoy. This album is a "miss" (not a hit).

I can respect that this album inspired a bunch of bands. It does nothing for me. Turns out I like Dream Pop - but hate Shoegaze. And when this tips over the line, yuck. I want to hear it without Elizabeth Fraser making syllabic sounds into a mic, but I'll never get that chance. It's a 2.

Sounds a lot like the easy going rock of the early 90s. Is worth while listening to in the background, but wouldn't want to listen to it outside of that. Reminds me of some of the slow music from The Crow soundtrack.

Not very memorable

Never really saw the appeal of Cocteau Twins and this certainly hasn’t changed my mind. Just nothing particularly interesting or exciting for me.

I know the band name. This is another album that only the Brits appreciate. It has great listener counts from top to bottom. I've honestly never heard a single one of these songs on the radio, at a party, on commercial, in a store, on a music compilation/playlist, etc. Quick observations: I don't care for her voice or the way the vocals are recorded - I felt like she was singing in a different language part of the time, was she? There is no open air or breaks in any of their songs, every gap is filled with layers of sound, it's overwhelming to the listener and not relaxing (it's called "ethereal and gossamer" online). I didn't enjoy this one bit. I found it confusing, it made me anxious, I just do not get the Cocteau Twins or what they're selling. 2 stars cuz obviously some people somewhere listen to this.

Clearly something good going on, I just couldn't figure it out

2 sterne

kinda snooze but inoffensive

Meh. Not bad, but feels a lot like a 90's version of ABBA.

Some pretty good sounds, but not really my thing

Nothing special, didn't feel like listening to the full album.

Wonderful

Massive meh

I could not warm up to anything about this record.

Massante, chato.

This one didn't really hold my attention.

Really not my cup of tea. I only got about half way through before giving up

Boring

Not my favorite or memorable.

I want to like this more than I do

I think this album really was pretty, but pretty does not equal not boring. I liked the vibe at the start. The album is soft and ethereal, but that faded away fairly quick. I grew a little bored around song 3 or 4. The vocalists sometimes sounded like they were mumbling, and some of the songs were so similar it was hard to tell the song had changed. I thought this had potential but left something to be desired.

I

Not sure what to make of this.

Forgettable.

A bit boring, it is nice but so far there s no song that i would like to add to my playlist, like nothing special.

Un disco bastante bueno y mejor que lo que he tenido que escuchar últimamente. Muy bonito y con momentos de perfección. Salvo muchas canciones

This was uniquely annoying, because it felt like I should be understanding the lyrics but learned that they were intentionally indecipherable. Most songs followed a pop structure, albeit ethereal, and at first I thought Elizabeth Fraser was singing a different language, but I occasionally heard some English in some songs. It was hard to latch onto anything.

not a vibe personally. the lead singer's inflections is off putting. Cool instrumentals tho

90s british emo pop...ehhhhhh

This could have its time and place but in my car while working was neither.

I came in with high expectations, but this was a bit of a nothing album

Ah nan par contre... Ça je laisserai pas passer. Le pire c'est que l'album est pas mauvais, mais qu'il est à mon sens tellement surcoté, je crois que j'ai rarement vu ça. Franchement j'ai presque rien retenu au global de la tracklist et même en tant qu'album, la DA et l'ambiance un peu electronic m'as vraiment déplu, c'est une immense déception.

Monotonous. Nice voices

Very uninteresting to me.

I don’t need this in my life right now.

Nothing bad about this album, but I didn’t feel anything Great about it either.

Meh

The music is very smooth. Kind of giving late night drive vibes, but alas the album did not really grab my attention except for like 2 songs.

Glossy and ethereal, but not something I'd put on to listen to. Reminds me of slightly elevated 80s pop, I might hear it in a department store or something.

I could understang its appeal to some, but not for me

Never heard of them. Not offensive but would never choose to listen to again.

Got kinda repetitive, not for me. 2.4/5

nauseating??

Gear: Fostex TH610 Artwork: 🌠🍒😈 Production (Remastered): 🥓😑🆗 Music: 👀👇👞 Rating: 🎰🎰(🎰)/5

This was unique

I don’t hate it . Not sure what situation I would find myself listening to it 🤷🏻‍♂️

Innovators of dream pop. Pleasant to listen to but too similar sounding.

Jenny: What's this? Me: The Cocteau Twins Jenny: Is it actual cocteaus?

Didn't strike me as anything too incredible, but listenable. Very much feels like background music.

I love Scottish Pop, I love Dream Pop, I love Shoegaze, I love 4AD, I love that moment in the late 80’s when indie bands popped their heads above the Radio 1 daytime playlist parapet and I love the Cocteau Twins and from that landscape RGP gives us this…FFS…top of the 2 star albums thus far. Tom.

It grew on me but not to a point where I’m going to miss it. The lyrics get lost for me and I found myself working hard to understand.

Cocteau? Like the french playwright? Evidently not as what I was presented with was pretty unremarkable. I'm not sure what gets this album on any lists as it didn't appear to be doing anything special. The genre dream pop does seem to describe it pretty well as the overall feel was relatively whimsical and light. I'll admit I was enjoying the first half of the album a bit, but it didn't have the stamina to keep me interested through the second half. After 15 minutes all the songs started to blend together and I realized I hadn't understood a single lyric to that point. As it limped across the finish line I was pretty happy when it wrapped up. The best application I can think of for this Cocteau Twins album is a late afternoon festival band on the small stage. After already hitting a couple of the acts and standing in the sun all day you need to eat something, recover a bit and rest before you gear up for the larger headliners. The background dream pop works as some passive white noise that scratches the itch while you lay on a blanket for 20 minutes and talk to your group about who else from the lineup you are interested in for the rest of the day. I don't believe I've been previously aware of Cocteau Twins but you could convince me that I've overheard them in the background of a festival in this exact scenario and it would make sense. 1.71 stars

what a horrible voice. I sort of got used to it and it faded to mild dislike until something about wearing a ring played and it was bloody awful I had to turn it off.

De er inne på noe, men dette er først og fremst kjedelig.

Difficult to connect to as the lyrics are basically incomprehensible. Can hear this record's influence on more recent bands. Beach House is an obvious comparison, but I like their music better than this. Not "bad" per se, just not terribly interesting.

Felt like a fever dream, not really sure what happened but I wouldn’t go looking to put them on again

An average/slightly below average album. 4/10

Not a good album, very samey, would not listen again

It wasnt noteworthy 2 stars A strong 3 out of 10

This didn't quite get me hooked on anything? Interesting to listen to, nice vibe, but like no song in there I was like "I have to get that in my liked songs!" which is a shame

“ I want to love a-bom-a-bom-bom me” ^one of the few things said i could understand

Idk this isn’t good

Meh.

Failed to really grab me or inspire me.

não gostei tanto assim.

Ok

Liked the first few but not so hot on the rest

Okay. I like the transition songs to shoegaze more than the 80s style dream poppy songs.

Meh

La primera canción aporta una ambientación muy buena pero durante el álbum se hace repetitivo el mismo sonido, no consigues diferenciar las canciones claramente. Se hace aburrido conforme pasa el álbum. Está bien para dejar de fondo pero no tanto para una escucha activa.

It didn't compel me.

Not sure what was other than a boring time capsule from the early 90s

Whole album sounded the same. Not a standout to me.

French pop rock. More enjoyable than the British pop rock we've heard, but still a little slow and boring. 5/10

Ok I’m still at the first song and I must say I love the instrumental. It reminds me of another song but I can’t remember which one. Okk finished it. I only liked the first song, the rest was disappointing honestly

Numbing, yet still irritating.

Well, my shoes have been thoroughly gazed at and I didn’t entirely enjoy it. Bonus point for some of it being in French

..

Can't stand the production. Too washy and verby for me. It is very of it's time.

Elevator music from the future.

The music is catchy and interesting but the mix is awful so far Its a really floaty pop sound but the mids are so loud on the synths its grating and overtaking the mix And this is the remastered version oof Couldnt finish the album even it was too harsh to listen to

I like the writing, and I like the vocals. All the vocal ornaments are clean and pretty. But I find it hard to get past the reverb and the overwhelming highs in the mix. I think if it were the same songs mixed more like a Sabrina Carpenter album, I would like it a lot more. Kind of has a similar vibe to the Cranberries, which I enjoy, but the mixing is giving me sensory overload. 2.5

Oh this is vibey right off the bat. Super dreamy first song. Guitar effects are pretty neat for the first three songs. I find the drum tone a bit too reverb, feels like bad 80s drums. Compositionally these songs are so different than what I typically hear. The first song I like, it was interesting and balanced, kicked off the album well. The others have been pretty bleh. As much as I’ve never been someone to deeply and consciously listen to lyrics, for some reason my brain turns that off, I usually just listen to vocal melody and cadence. I didn’t like these vocals. This doesn’t sound like it’s in English but just looked up lyrics, it is. I just realized it’s a heavy Scottish accent, it becomes more clear as the album goes on. The vocal delivery and performance feel disjointed from the music to me. Songs 4 and 5 6, I thought for a moment oh maybe this will be good from the music intro but then the chord changes ruin it for me. I just really don’t care for it. And the vocal melodies overtop, nah, not it. I Wear Your Ring was foul lol. The harmonics in Road, River and Rail were not working for me. Seems like there’s key changes in Frou-frou song, and the instruments seem to lag with catching up to the vocals, when they finally do it’s not a bad outro. Overall, it feels very 90s. First song was pretty cool, I can imagine popping that cd into a system and listening back in the 90s, but the rest of the album sharply went downhill for me. Went back to listen to the first song, cherry coloured funk, and it still stands as the best song on the album to me, still not something I’ll be adding to my playlists. To have honest I wish I could have just stopped there, listening to the rest of the album skewed how I hear that first song for sure. 2.5/5 as an album but the first song gets a 3.5

This music all sounds the same.

Not my thing.

En okänd grupp för mig. Jag gillar titeln på plattan. Jag har ett problem efter en lyssning. I mina öron låter allt lite samey. Jag har svårt att höra vart en låt slutar och nästa börjar om jag lyssnar passivt. Jag kan förstå vad gruppen försökte göra med detta album. Det är luftigt, spaceigt och ambienceigt, eller vad man ska kalla det. Och man lyckas I guess. Det låter bra tycker jag. Men allt är för intetsägande för mina öron. Kul att ha bekantat mig med Coctau Twins men fler snurr blir det nog inte för mig.

ok, but didnt like the voice

A very 90s-sounding album. Very not for me.

It had something that was a bit annoying, but overal it was an oke album

This was ok. Not 100% my style, but it was fine and I could pick out some elements that I enjoyed. I don’t know that I would ever go back to it, and honestly it’s one of those albums that I guess I just don’t get. Like why is it on this list? What makes people love this record?

I was not a fan of the twins in the 80s northern 90s back then we would call that music experimental. Björk put out some great music with a similar style but harder hitting melodies and instruments. 30 years later, I’m still not a fan

Slow, not memorable

Meh

I didn't get on with that very much... Not my thing.

An immaculate sounding album. Shame it doesn’t mean a damn thing.

This group was never on my radar although I am familiar with Pearly-Dewdrops Drops (not sure where I first heard it). Not an album I'd seek out again.

At first listen I found it a very unique sound. As I got farther in, it all sounded the same. Maybe it would have been much more palatable if you could understand the words in the songs.

Iceblink luck is an amazing song but this kind of pop was mastered by the sundays and this just isn't in the same realm. File with the cure as a potential good idea that should have never have got further.

Overall, not my jam

Meh

I did not care for this at all.

For over 30 years I've tried to appreciate this album or at least understand why so many people love. Still don't see it, it's boring

No thank you.

Pretty bland

Know the name, never listened before - let’s see… Kinda meh-ball for me. A bit wet, don’t love the box and instruments feel a bit rough and basic. Not a great mix either. Yeh, don’t like the effects on the vox, the gated drums and instruments in general. Again, terrible mix. And didn’t get the reviews about not being able to tell the language they are singing in or words, but now I get it. Yep, ready for this to finish (2.5)

Felt like the potential to be good was there, just came short

As someone who enjoyed 80’s pop, I was surprised not to know any of the songs. It was a decent listen. On a few songs it seemed like she was singing in another language, so I tried to look at the lyrics but they were unavailable. I looked them up afterwards and learned that singing unintelligibly was her thing. :/