Heaven or Las Vegas

• Heaven or Las Vegas has been Cocteau Twins most commercially successful LP.
• Peaked at #7 on the UK album chart, and #99 in the US. “Iceblink luck” peaked at #38 on the UK singles chart, and #4 on the US alternative singles chart. “Heaven or Las Vegas” peaked at #9 on the US alternative singles chart.
• Promotional videos were produced for “Iceblink luck” and “Heaven or Las Vegas.”
• A promotional-only single of “Heaven or Las Vegas” was released, which featured an edit of the song (the version featured in the video), backed with “Dials.”
• “Iceblink luck” was featured as b-side on a 1990 Japan-only release of the single “Athol-Brose” (from the LP Blue Bell Knoll).
• An alternate version of “Pitch the baby” was recorded and released on the Mute Records/4AD compilation “Red Tape.”
• A version of “Cherry-coloured funk,” remixed by Mark Clifford, appears on the 1995 EP Otherness.
• The following songs have appeared in live performances: “Cherry-coloured funk,” “Pitch the baby,” “Iceblink luck,” “Fifty-fifty clown,” “Heaven or Las Vegas,” “I wear your ring,” “Wolf in the breast,” and “Road, river, and rail.”
• The songs “Cherry-coloured funk,” “Pitch the baby,” and “Frou-frou foxes in midsummer fires,” were performed live with new arrangements by Elizabeth Fraser during her Meltdown Festival solo performances in 2012.
• The songs “Iceblink luck,” “Fifty-fifty clown” and “Heaven or Las Vegas” appear on the 2000 compilation Stars and Topsoil.
• “Road, River, and Rail” was included on the two-disc compilation that accompanied the 2013 book, Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD, by Martin Aston.
• The album title was suggested by Lawrence (Hayward) of Denim/Felt, who liked the line from the song of the same name.
• The working title of the song “Heaven or Las Vegas” was “Crispy Fiver Blue,” a joke name that Melody Maker had included in a lampoon of the band’s tendency toward eccentric titles.
• This was the last Cocteau Twins recording to appear on the 4AD label, and was simultaneously released on Capitol Records in the United States.
• Heaven or Las Vegas was digitally remastered and re-released by 4AD in 2003.
• Voted #18 of “Scotland’s 100 Best Rock and Pop Albums” in 2003.
• Heaven or Las Vegas was the focus of a BBC Scotland programme, “Classic Scottish Albums,” in 2007.
• The track “Heaven or Las Vegas” was remixed by Starslinger in 2010.
• A digitally remastered vinyl edition of Heaven or Las Vegas was released by 4AD in 2014.
• Ranked #1 on Pitchfork.com’s “Greatest Dream Pop Albums of All Time” list.
• Received a “Perfect 10” review on Pitchfork.com (for vinyl reissue in 2014).
• Included in the 2005 book, 1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
• Ranked #245 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
• Ranked #18 on Pitchfork’s “Top 150 Albums of the 90s.”
• “Cherry-coloured funk” ranked #188 on Pitchfork’s “250 Best Songs of the 1990s.”
• Ranked #1 on Paste Magazine’s “Top 25 Dream Pop Albums of All Time.”
• Ranked #1 on Brooklyn Vegan’s “Top 30 Albums of 1990.”