Poll the Baby: Heaven or Las Vegas by the Cocteau Twins

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
cherry-coloured funk 8
heaven or las vegas 8
fifty-fifty clown 6
frou-frou foxes in midsummer fires 4
pitch the baby 4
fotzepolitic 3
iceblink luck 2
road, river and rail 2
wolf in the breast 0
i wear your ring 0


dayo, Wednesday, 22 September 2010 08:51 (fifteen years ago)

50/50 clown, oh yes

deep-fried cigarette (electricsound), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 08:53 (fifteen years ago)

Probably "Pitch the Baby". Think was the last time I got a toss about the Cocteaus.

Mo Tucker Mo Problems (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 08:55 (fifteen years ago)

"Think this was the last time I gave a toss"

Hmmm, brain up to speed this morning.

Mo Tucker Mo Problems (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 08:56 (fifteen years ago)

I can never remember which deep cuts are which on Cocteaus albums because the titles are gibberish. I'll have to listen to it again before voting.

Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 22 September 2010 08:58 (fifteen years ago)

<3 u for this poll dayo! Suprised we havent done this one (have we?). Me and Bimble went a bit nuts on cocteaux polls at one point.

cathedral-sized jellyfish in your mind (Trayce), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:05 (fifteen years ago)

I think I might have to go for "Road, River and Rail", but I'm gonna have to tink on it. And listen to the album. RRR is great tho - I actually know most of the words!

cathedral-sized jellyfish in your mind (Trayce), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:07 (fifteen years ago)

Okay, it's "Fotzepolitic" which has the melody that kills me. I knew it was one of the songs on this album.

Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:09 (fifteen years ago)

did a halfassed search but nothing came up. this may be the only Cocteau twins album where I can summon the melody from the song name alone.

dayo, Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:09 (fifteen years ago)

Said lyrics, at least a fairly reliable interpretation from a source online I trust:

Really far away
Though those choices can't be told
Naked and caught on the Île de la Cité

Oh holy pew is of eleventh century
Full of shame and a fearless decay
Formed into an angel
From some flower
Fabulous and dreamery
Flame on the crown in her influence

From out of the Bayeux
See him with hair pulled
Blue pants suit and no waist
Through Paris we'd stroll
From out of the Bayeux

My destiny
Seventeen my mind was seized
Into the fold
When you weren't feeling hated then
No boiling thirst
It was a focus of adjectives

Road, river and rail
So unblemished and natural
As mother's daughter
Today she'll follow road, river and rail

cathedral-sized jellyfish in your mind (Trayce), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:10 (fifteen years ago)

(actally I reckon its "naked and cold on the Ile de la Cite", but what would I know)

cathedral-sized jellyfish in your mind (Trayce), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:11 (fifteen years ago)

Fotzepolitic is awesome too mind you. Cripes, this is hard.

cathedral-sized jellyfish in your mind (Trayce), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:15 (fifteen years ago)

<3 this album so much. Strangely, I'm not a big fan of much else by them. Nearly every track is a worthy contender, so I'm not sure what I'm gonna vote for. The first three tracks are amazing, as is the title track and fotzepolitic. The use of the title track at the end was the only good thing about that travestous Donnie Darko sequel.

village idiot (dog latin), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:18 (fifteen years ago)

There was a time when I owned every CT release I could get my hands on, but all I have left now are this album and The Pink Opaque (I made a ton of $$$ selling it all off in the early eBay days before everyone was downloading everything they ever wanted).

Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:19 (fifteen years ago)

Voting Iceblink Luck, because that is the song that starts playing in my head when I think of this album.

village idiot (dog latin), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 09:22 (fifteen years ago)

Fotze is a naughty word in German, by the way. Not a lot of people know that.

margana (anagram), Wednesday, 22 September 2010 10:26 (fifteen years ago)

fffimf I think

dayo, Thursday, 23 September 2010 03:31 (fifteen years ago)

fart politics? ha.

cathedral-sized jellyfish in your mind (Trayce), Thursday, 23 September 2010 03:43 (fifteen years ago)

um not quite

deep-fried cigarette (electricsound), Thursday, 23 September 2010 03:45 (fifteen years ago)

missed opportunity to use FotzePOLLitic imo

meatball subs (corey), Thursday, 23 September 2010 03:49 (fifteen years ago)

voted Fifty-Fifty Clown

meatball subs (corey), Thursday, 23 September 2010 03:50 (fifteen years ago)

i'm going to vote for frou-frou because you caught me in a particular mood.

normally i suppose, i'd side with pitch the baby

charlie h, Thursday, 23 September 2010 04:21 (fifteen years ago)

Went for RRR after all in the end. Suspect this poll will have a spread of votes, unless the lurkers all jump in andvote for HOLV which tbqh i am not a fan of. Its ok, but eh.

cathedral-sized jellyfish in your mind (Trayce), Thursday, 23 September 2010 04:33 (fifteen years ago)

oh god this is impossible

a fucking knitted scarf (another al3x), Thursday, 23 September 2010 04:43 (fifteen years ago)

could really be anything depending on mood but i guess it's between cherry-coloured and 50/50. or not. dunno... had a period of regularly drinking a bottle of wine to this, and maybe repeating if i had two

a fucking knitted scarf (another al3x), Thursday, 23 September 2010 04:49 (fifteen years ago)

really love the huge cover image at the top

meatball subs (corey), Thursday, 23 September 2010 04:51 (fifteen years ago)

title track (reason i bought the album in the first place)

william buttinski's 'the disintegration snoops' (donna rouge), Thursday, 23 September 2010 05:44 (fifteen years ago)

shame that you didn't find anything on there you liked more

charlie h, Thursday, 23 September 2010 06:13 (fifteen years ago)

not necc. so, just the reason why i picked that song

william buttinski's 'the disintegration snoops' (donna rouge), Thursday, 23 September 2010 07:31 (fifteen years ago)

ah ok. rad

charlie h, Thursday, 23 September 2010 07:55 (fifteen years ago)

Either pitch the baby for the sequencers or iceblink luck for sounding like New Order - because those were the two songs I was most into when this came out. Nowadays though I love every song on this.

I am using your worlds, Thursday, 23 September 2010 08:47 (fifteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

in before system

dayo, Friday, 8 October 2010 00:38 (fifteen years ago)

One of my favorite albums from one of my all-time favorite bands. I could vote for any song really, there's no filler here. Going with the epic closing track.

LeRooLeRoo, Friday, 8 October 2010 19:27 (fifteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Friday, 8 October 2010 23:01 (fifteen years ago)

1. Cherry
2. RR&R

Album is compositely flawless.

cee-oh-tee-tee, Saturday, 9 October 2010 00:31 (fifteen years ago)

title track or fotzepolitic. every song is amazing though.

strongohulkingtonsghost, Saturday, 9 October 2010 02:51 (fifteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Saturday, 9 October 2010 23:01 (fifteen years ago)

damn, i missed this. i would have voted for 50/50 clown - love that balearic bass line

licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Sunday, 10 October 2010 10:06 (fifteen years ago)

love results where two songs are tied for first

dayo, Sunday, 10 October 2010 10:19 (fifteen years ago)

when the snare hits kick in on frou frou foxes = my heart melts

dayo, Sunday, 10 October 2010 12:19 (fifteen years ago)

also I like the symmetry

8-8-6-4-4-3-2-2-0-0

dayo, Sunday, 10 October 2010 12:19 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

Fuck an ILM for zero votes for "I Wear Your Ring" in this poll.

Tim F, Sunday, 6 November 2011 11:56 (fourteen years ago)

frou frou foxes! i've listened to that song like 10 times in a row on occasion

bluelips, Sunday, 6 November 2011 15:31 (fourteen years ago)

five years pass...

fifty-fifty clown for that gorgeous vocal at 1.58

Week of Wonders (Ross), Monday, 9 October 2017 03:51 (eight years ago)

btw does anybody know why lou reed appears to have a songwriting credit for road, river and rail?
https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tpud4qhwn5kyt6eu3ifsum2j4gm?lyrics=1
(at the very bottom)

palko, Friday, 13 October 2017 14:55 (eight years ago)

one month passes...

i didn't know how much i liked this band but 'fotzepolitic' just came on some sort of random spotify thing and hooooooly shit where has this been all my life

imago, Wednesday, 22 November 2017 20:33 (eight years ago)

turns out the rest of the album is slightly less imago-tastic. but man, that song. that ENDING. why doesn't it go on for eight minutes? whyyyyy

imago, Thursday, 23 November 2017 17:59 (eight years ago)

the last song is my favorite

understood by moron level and above (brimstead), Thursday, 23 November 2017 18:39 (eight years ago)

"frou-frou foxes in midsummer fires"

understood by moron level and above (brimstead), Thursday, 23 November 2017 18:40 (eight years ago)

that was up there too, along with 'pitch the baby'

imago, Thursday, 23 November 2017 23:20 (eight years ago)

This album is so good that the two songs that received no votes are fire

ur-oik (rip van wanko), Thursday, 23 November 2017 23:42 (eight years ago)

Fuck an ILM for zero votes for "I Wear Your Ring" in this poll.

― Tim F, Sunday, 6 November 2011 11:56 (six years ago) Permalink

me otm

Tim F, Friday, 24 November 2017 01:30 (eight years ago)

one month passes...

this album is redonkulous

trife's rich padgett (rip van wanko), Thursday, 18 January 2018 03:31 (eight years ago)

I have listened to it since age 15 and it just gets better

trife's rich padgett (rip van wanko), Thursday, 18 January 2018 03:31 (eight years ago)

biggest crime is wolf in the breast getting no votes, the song's outro smokes

this album has held up the most in the cocteau's canon for me. Victorialand and Love's Easy Tears were always my go-to favorites, but Heaven or Las Vegas is their perfect dream pop record.

kolakube (Ross), Thursday, 18 January 2018 03:53 (eight years ago)

three months pass...

I have fallen hard for this record…I heard it vaguely at the time, but oddly heard Four Calendar more, based on a co-worker playing it a lot in the office in 1994…

the title cut made me cry as I was walking around Prospect Park on this glorious spring day, watching little girls play and thinking that my 16 month old will be doing that soon. Its the slide after the choruses that gets me…is it Guthrie or Raymonde that played the —I hesitate to use the following term— solos?

veronica moser, Friday, 11 May 2018 20:25 (eight years ago)

How did I miss this poll? I'd have gone for Fifty-Clown. Liz's voice sounds like a choir of angels there.

Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 11 May 2018 20:59 (eight years ago)

Fifty-fifty clown of course.

Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 11 May 2018 21:00 (eight years ago)

Yeah that track is gorgeous. Re the solo - the fairly-literal video shows Fraser, Guthrie, Raymonde performing (vocal, Gretsch, Fender VI) as well as Mitsuo Tate (Jazzmaster) and Lincoln Fong (?) (Strat) who were in the touring band. I think it shows Guthrie doing the solo on a hideous green PRS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KnYw4EwYGc

startled macropod (MatthewK), Friday, 11 May 2018 22:14 (eight years ago)

Oops, no, Ben Blakeman on Strat. Neither he nor Tate played on the record I believe.

startled macropod (MatthewK), Friday, 11 May 2018 22:20 (eight years ago)

yknow, being that I'm a novice, It's hard for me to hear who the artists that 'fluenced them might be. They did something with Harold budd, but I don't hear minimalism. Were they into eno and the berlin trilogy?

veronica moser, Saturday, 12 May 2018 23:39 (eight years ago)

It doesn't help much but I know they were way into The Birthday Party at the outset, it's why they sent their demo to 4AD.

startled macropod (MatthewK), Sunday, 13 May 2018 00:16 (eight years ago)

best album ever

flopson, Sunday, 13 May 2018 00:22 (eight years ago)

Kinda surprised at the low showing for Iceblink Luck tbh

Colonel Poo, Sunday, 13 May 2018 00:56 (eight years ago)

I hear my baby crying

Free jazz baser (Ross), Sunday, 13 May 2018 02:57 (eight years ago)

three months pass...

I love that you can hear Liz's (quite strong!) Scottish accent on Road River and Rail. Does she do that anywhere else? It's particularly strong in the chorus and on the title-line.

Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Thursday, 30 August 2018 17:36 (seven years ago)

Rrroad Rrrivurr and Rrray-ull.

Rrright?

Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Friday, 31 August 2018 00:02 (seven years ago)

Love the anecdote that Simon Raymonde was delighted she'd written a song about fishing - y'know, "Rod, River and Reel".

an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Friday, 31 August 2018 07:03 (seven years ago)

+1 for I wear yr ring

yuoowemeone, Friday, 31 August 2018 07:55 (seven years ago)

five years pass...

Listening to this album for the first time in several years, I noticed the keyboard line that opens "Frou Frou" could've come from a Roxette single. The song sounds like a modern rock Roxette single.

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 June 2024 13:50 (one year ago)

eleven months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLHzzH4IJ70

this fuckin rules imo

kendrick lamaze "to push a baby out" (m bison), Saturday, 17 May 2025 00:52 (one year ago)

would have voted "Pitch The Baby"

sleeve, Saturday, 17 May 2025 00:55 (one year ago)

That Cocteaus cover is amazing, thanks for sharing m 🦬 .

Piedie Gimbel, Saturday, 17 May 2025 07:40 (one year ago)

🫡

kendrick lamaze "to push a baby out" (m bison), Saturday, 17 May 2025 13:56 (one year ago)

“Fifty-fifty clown” hit me with a ton of power when I listened to this album a couple of weeks ago, ambushed by unexpected emotion indeed

brimstead, Saturday, 17 May 2025 15:54 (one year ago)

just thinking about that song has lifted my mood a bit <3

brimstead, Saturday, 17 May 2025 15:58 (one year ago)

Fifty Fifty Clown is the secret MVP.

Also, how in heaven did neither Wolf in Breast nor I Wear Your Ring get any votes?!

vmajestic, Saturday, 17 May 2025 17:46 (one year ago)

Always thought that would be a great putdown. Fuckin' fifty-fifty clown. The fuck outta here!

henry s, Saturday, 17 May 2025 18:21 (one year ago)

I love this band and feel very lucky to see them around the time of this album but probably haven't listened to it in 30 years.

Bee OK, Sunday, 18 May 2025 02:32 (one year ago)

xps of course FFC was the song Prince lifted for “Love, Thy Will Be Done”, too

assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 18 May 2025 04:03 (one year ago)

FFC my favorite Cocteau song period. Wish they’d done more of that languorous Balearic sound (or maybe I just haven’t heard it)

licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Sunday, 18 May 2025 06:49 (one year ago)

“Watchlar” (b side from Iceblink Luck) has some similar qualities

assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 18 May 2025 07:53 (one year ago)

Sorry in advance for audiophila but this is one of the best sounding CDs I own.

brimstead, Sunday, 18 May 2025 15:11 (one year ago)


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