In a world that was confined, many sought sanctuaries in their music collections. As we emerge from behind the sofa to see the sun rising once more, life seems to have found its axis, and spins on. It is about time we ventured back to find the ethereal notes and phantasmagoria of the Cocteau Twins that will help us process the day to day. A question that has been on my lips for some time; is it Heaven or Las Vegas? Its thirty years since the release of the Cocteau Twins cherry-coloured-dream-sequence that was their sixth studio album. Two years after the release of Blue Bell Knoll the group released their final album with 4AD and created a vibrant soundtrack to the dream like synopsis of a turbulent year for the band members. It was to be their most commercially successful album to date and earned favour with media, the NME adorning it with a brass-knuckled 8/10 and putting it on the 28th highest pedestal of albums released in 1990. Already having cult fame the band found their album hit the number 7 spot on the UK charts.
In the 90’s Britain was turning a corner; the poll tax riots shook the nation and Thatcher lost power. Nelson Mandela was released in February of the same year and Tim Berners-Lee published his formal proposal for the world wide web. In June, the Berlin wall began being officially knocked down and somewhere amongst all this rabble the Cocteau Twins, composed of, Robin Guthrie, Elizabeth Fraser and Simon Raymonde battled new relationships, each bringing its own burden. They manged to produce an album which was the flower that sprouts from the debris of progress.
1988’s Blue Bell Knoll was the trio’s first recording together in four years and sparked an incredible period of creativity for the band (This Mortal Coil and collaborations with Harold Budd). The introduction of their own studio in North Acton spurred creative freedom. The band was experiencing the fruits of happy relations and work-output which allowed musical exploration. The studio gave the band more control over the recordings and it is evident that this period of sustained creativity allowed the band to evolve and master their own unique sound. The comfortable and promising ambience that surrounded the run up to the album was fuelled by the marriage of Raymonde and the introduction of Fraser and Guthrie’s child. Raymonde said in an interview with The Skinny that; “we were in a very good space musically but we were putting so much time and effort into the music, it was trying to mask all the other shit that was going on[…]” This was the beginning of a journey which led the band to a hiatus while Guthrie went to rehab to address his drug problems. The importance of the story of and the album is to take stock in the things that are good for us and the news has always been, and is currently, full of doom and dread. Why not take a leaf out of the Cocteau Twins book; despite what was going on, in their lives and the world – they created music, slender and ethereal.
The poll tax caused divisions between the rich and the poor, equality was an important issue for most. Similarly, the protests which rage in the US following the death of George Floyd are demonstrations of the need of equality. The harsh bite of reality is wrongly felt harder for some more than others and it has not changed. The worldwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic meant that countries erected borders. Now the borders are being opened and lockdowns eased. Hark back to the Berlin wall being torn down and families, friends and lovers being reunited.
The point being, the situations are similar, and the parallels can come easily, or they can be forced. Heaven or Las Vegas strides fervently on the obtuse angel of alternative music – Frasers eclectic vocals become vivid incantations which rouse lucidity up within us. Heaven or Las Vegas boasts lyrics that cut a clear and sonic English which finally allow us in to the world of the Cocteau Twins. We can begin to piece together the music which grates so much on textures and colours that the trip becomes a heterotopic zoom meet-up.
The album covers topics of diverse inner turmoil but also boasts songs which were made up on the spot. ‘Cherry Coloured Funk’ was built up in the studio according to Guthrie, Fraser claims that the lyrics to the track were random words picked out of books and dictionaries. Reinforcing the pursuit of a feeling by disregarding the meaning of lyrics by treating them with little to no importance. Guthrie asked Paul West, who designed the album with Andy Rumble, to catch the essence of the music. They achieved this by swinging Christmas lights in front of coloured back drops and shooting them over long exposure. This DIY approach compliments the music and message. It creates the a diaphanous, other-worldly and metaphysical scene, but it’s made up of building blocks as real and common as dirt, just like the music on the album which becomes a vibration of astral magnitude only when put together.
With all this in mind its apparent to me that to mark the 30 years of the album we should also celebrate the band and its diversity, its resilience and its spirit to produce music which is out of the ordinary and obtuse towards the norms of the moment. We can then begin to appreciate the album for its modern importance in today’s world. As music fans, let us take our hats off to an album that achieved a grandiose aesthetic, one that painted pictures in a year of turmoil. One of alternative music’s masterpieces has an unwavering eminence and musical-haute-couture that stands prominent and elusive today more than ever. We should all do ourselves a favour and immerse ourselves in it while the time is right.
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