Heaven or Las Vegas

There is no other record that sounds like this one. Heaven or Las Vegas is the kind of album that makes the air in the room feel different while it plays. Elizabeth Fraser's voice is treated by most listeners as an instrument rather than a delivery mechanism for words, partly because her lyrics are frequently composed of invented syllables and half-formed phonemes chosen for texture rather than meaning. The result is singing that bypasses language entirely and lands somewhere in the nervous system. You feel it before you understand it, and then you realize you are never going to understand it in the conventional sense, and that is entirely the point.

Guitarist Robin Guthrie builds layers of guitar through effects pedals until individual notes become pools of color, each chord spreading outward like ink dropped in water. Bassist Simon Raymonde holds the whole shimmering architecture together from underneath. Fraser was six months pregnant when she recorded her vocals, and many of her performances were directed at the child she was carrying. Guthrie was deep in addiction during the sessions. Their relationship was fracturing at the edges. The music they made from that charged and tender and difficult place sounds like joy and grief occupying the same breath, which is exactly what was happening in their lives.

If you are encountering the Cocteau Twins for the first time, Heaven or Las Vegas is the ideal entry point because it is their most accessible and most emotionally direct record. "Cherry-Coloured Funk," "Iceblink Luck," and the title track are three of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded. Put it on with headphones in the dark and give it your full attention. Nothing will prepare you for what it does.