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

50/50 clown, oh yes

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

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

Hmmm, brain up to speed this morning.

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.

<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.

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!

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

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.

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

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

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

<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.

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).

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

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

fffimf I think

fart politics? ha.

um not quite

missed opportunity to use FotzePOLLitic imo

voted Fifty-Fifty Clown

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

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.

oh god this is impossible

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

really love the huge cover image at the top

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

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

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

ah ok. rad

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.

in before system

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.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

1. Cherry
2. RR&R

Album is compositely flawless.

title track or fotzepolitic. every song is amazing though.

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

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

love results where two songs are tied for first

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

also I like the symmetry

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

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

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

fifty-fifty clown for that gorgeous vocal at 1.58

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)

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

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

the last song is my favorite

"frou-frou foxes in midsummer fires"

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

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

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

this album is redonkulous

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

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.

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?

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

Fifty-fifty clown of course.

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

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

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?

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.

best album ever

Kinda surprised at the low showing for Iceblink Luck tbh

I hear my baby crying

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.

Rrroad Rrrivurr and Rrray-ull.

Rrright?

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

+1 for I wear yr ring

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.

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

this fuckin rules imo

would have voted "Pitch The Baby"

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

🫡

“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

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

Fifty Fifty Clown is the secret MVP.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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