Review written by Alceu Natali
with Copyright protected by Brazilian law # 9610/98
POSTED ON WWW.AMAZON.COM ON
NOVEMBER 1ST, 2007
INTRODUCTION During the last 15
years I have seen lists of the Best Albums Of All Time, published, mainly, by
English and American magazines. I have tried my best but I could never listen to most of those great albums without skipping various tracks. I ask myself if
it is a question of taste or prejudice. Maybe both. For instances, when I see
The Beastie Boys and Eminem among the English magazine Q's 100 best albums of
all time, inevitably, my dark side comes to light: I'd rather see those rappers
and hip hoppers murdering the ears of music lovers than murdering people in the
streets. Here goes another example: the absence of The Who's album My
Generation among the 100 best of that magazine makes me wonder whether these
magazines reviewers really listen to music at all. In my country, people say
that taste is something that cannot be disputed, but the other day my wife
added: taste is something that cannot be disputed but to be sorry about. And
she is pretty damn right because what you find and do not find in those lists is something to be awfully sorry about. For someone like me, who loves british pop music, it is impossible to take seriously any list of the best albums of all
time that is not topped by Beatles' albums. The Rolling Stone magazine Greatest
Albums of All Time have some respect for The Beatles and included 8 albums of
theirs among the 100 greatest, however among their 500 greatest you will not
find such a precious stone like Heaven Or Las Vegas but you meet face to face with those music murderers I mentioned above and also a lot of albums that are not good
enough to be part of the 100,000 greatest of all time. Lest the new generations
think I am just a dinosaur of the 60's, I anticipate that I am not the kind of
guy who spends hours listening to the complete collections of the greatest bands
of the golden decade. I love rock and pop music from all decades. As a matter of
fact, I have more CDs from the last two decades than from the 60's, 70's, 80's,
90's and the new millenium's. Nowadays, with the invention of the MP3, people do
not need anymore to buy a whole album only because of a few good songs. The
music lovers can download from internet only the songs that they like and that
means that within a couple of years or so there will be no more CDs for sale.
Then, instead of a collection of CDs on his/her shelves, the music lover will
have an anthology of songs in his/her iPOD. And I wonder if we are going back to
the 60's when only singles were bought while an album was a luxury, something to
be bought only as a Christmas gift, or just a tricky marketing strategy to make
some extra money on a couple of hits repacked together with a bunch of
disposable fillers. As you may remember or not, it was The Beatles with their
unmatched talents who made albums become a new form of art and be taken
seriously by the media and the public. Anyway, I am already familiar with the
iPOD but I am not the kind of anthological guy. Lately, I started prospecting
what I call great albums, but great for me is not an album made only of
classics in all tracks, or an habitue of radio's hit parades and famous
magazines' lists. Furthermore, there is no perfect album. Great for me is a damn
good album, from the very first track to the last one. That album that you
listen to all the way without skipping a track and without wishing a certain
track reaches its end soon because your favorite one comes next. I have
prospected many of those types of albums but you will not see most of my greatest in those famous and respectable lists made by journalists as mediocre
as music reviewers as I am as an artist or a writer. If you ask me about my
prospecting criteria, all I can tell you is that those who have good ears for
music do not need more than 30 seconds of each track of an album to know whether
it is great or not. That's what I do. When I am looking for new bands I listen
to the 30 seconds of every track of their albums available at Amazon until I
find my classic one. My musical sense of smell is infallible. When I listen to
the entire CD that had that smell of great stemming from the 30 seconds of each
one of its tracks there is no mistake about it: it is a great album! On the
other hand, I already own about 1,000 CDs of different bands and among them
there are various great ones. Heaven Or Las Vegas is one of them. THE TRACKS 1.
Cherry-Coloured Funk is a thick and corpulent song, with instruments and vocals
filling the space. It is a simple but classic melody, soft and tranquil. It
progresses from low vocal notes until it reaches a peak, while the celestial
chords sound all the time in the background as if they were playing in a nearby
room, and the same goes for the discrete but scoring bass. 2. Pitch The Baby is
faster with a more prominent and pointed bass and higher vocal notes. The
heavenly atmosphere permeates the song all over. It is a forewarning of track 6
and displays a melodic progression from the first track that culminates with 3.
Iceblink luck, a very beautiful pop song, in which both vocals and instruments
play with intensity and devotion. Only the drums are muffled to leave room for
the fight between the enchanting vocals and the gorgeous instruments for the
thrilling climax to the show. 4. Fifty-Fifty Clown is a masterpiece. It has a
timelessly futurist sound. Only Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles has a
similarly complex and beautiful melodic progression. The first part is very
difficult to be sung. You cannot whistle it even after listening to it ten times
in a row and that means it required a lot of talent to be invented. 5. Heaven Or
Las Vegas is similar to Iceblink Luck, less intense and more rhythmical, and
equally beautiful. Beth Fraser's vocals are terrific. Iceblink Luck and Heaven
Or Las Vegas are Cocteau Twins' couple of their most pop songs, a pair of
explosion of joy. 6. I Wear Your Ring is another masterpiece. It is a song that
was waiting for someone to create it and it was up to the Cocteau Twins to do
it. Beth Fraser' vocals, the bass and the rest of the instruments are amazing
and trance inducing. The second and final part is pure ecstasy, one of the best
moments of pop music. 7. Fotzepolitic is moved by the beauty of the previous
track, celebrates its splendor and makes sure not to challenge its royalty and,
at the same time, pays it a sublime homage and becomes a metaphor of that
masterpiece. 8. Wolf In The Breast is a prime and a proof that, definitely, the
Cocteau Twins were wounded by a Cupid arrow of excellence and made another
masterpiece of a simple ballad. After six breathtaking tracks, enters 9. Road,
River And Rail, a more lamenting ballad that is not deprived of any of the
refinements of the previous tracks and 10. Frou-frou Foxes In Midsummer
continues that lamenting for a while but ends with an explosion of vibrant and
fire working sound that fills the air again, like a farewell tune adequate to
the last track of a fantastic album. REMARK I met a guy who loves rock and pop
music like I do and who has the same taste and prejudice I do, but one day he
grinned in irony when I told him I found the Cocteau Twins great. 'Why do not
you share a kitchenette with them?' asked me the same guy who declared that the
Brazilian bossa nova is the greatest revolution in music of all time. Well,
bossa nova is a kind of music easily found in every corner of Rio de Janeiro
City or even in casinos in Las Vegas and in some boring and corny American movies but the
Cocteau Twins' sound is a treasure hidden in heaven and finding it out demands
as much talent as the Cocteau Twins needed to produce Heaven Or Las
Vegas.
THE TRACKS
1. Cherry-Coloured Funk
2. Pitch The Baby
3. Iceblink luck
4. Fifty-Fifty Clown
5. Heaven Or Las Vegas
6. I Wear Your Ring
7. Fotzepolitic
8. Wolf In The Breast
9. Road, River And Rail
10. Frou-frou Foxes In Midsummer
