Board 8 > Rank the Tracks 232: Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas

(+) Yeah! (+)

spreadsheets with previous results can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12PpZ3uQ093tRPVu-KLewIxmrzfLJf1oo?usp=drive_link

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Thursday, September 11th at 8:00 AM Central Time; If you do get in a vote after the deadline but before I post the results, I will probably include it.
7. Every few weeks, a nomination period will open; there may or may not be a theme. Each user can nominate one album. The following week, everyone will be able to rank their top ~5 among the choices - this will use a bottom-up scoring approach, i.e. voting for one album will give your #1 a single point, voting for five will give your #1 five points, so it is always better to vote for the maximum number of albums. The top ~5 will then be covered (if there is a tie leading to six entries, both get in - if more than that, I will do a tiebreaker)
8. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas track list:
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 Fires

Future weeks:
9/11: Katamari Damacy Soundtrack "Katamari Fortissimo Damacy"
9/18: Mort Garson - Mother Earth's Plantasia (+ album noms)
9/25: The National - Alligator (+ album voting)
10/2: The Killers - Sam's Town

Was not feeling this one much on a first listen.

Also, just a reminder about Rank the Albums 9 list submissions, which has about 2 weeks left: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/81018193

Alright, there's a string of albums that I voted for on the upcoming roster, so let's see if I can get myself to do it this week.

Gorgeous album. Had an easy time putting Heaven or Las Vegas + Cherry-Coloured Funk up top and putting Road River and Rail at the bottom, but deciding between the middle tracks took a while.

1. Heaven or Las Vegas
2. Cherry-Coloured Funk
3. Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
4. Pitch the Baby
5. I Wear Your Ring
6. Iceblink Luck
7. Fotzepolitic
8. Fifty-Fifty Clown
9. Wolf in the Breast
10. Road, River and Rail

Cherry Coloured Funk
Heaven or Las Vegas
Pitch the Baby
Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
I Wear Your Ring
Wolf in the Breast
Iceblink Luck
Fifty-fifty Clown
Road, River and Rail
Fotzepolitic

Heaven or Las Vegas
Iceblink Luck
Cherry-coloured Funk
Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
Wolf in the Breast
I Wear Your Ring
Fotzepolitic
Fifty-five Clown
Road, River and Rail
Pitch the Baby

This is generally considered THE Cocteau Twins album, but it's just a strong album. There's plenty of Cocteau Twins songs I like more than any of the ones on this record, so maybe with a repeat theme we'll get to those someday!

Did first listen, aiming for a second before I start ranking.

Gonna skip ranking this one. It's not terrible but I'm not feeling it for ranking purposes.

Spoilers: More than likely going to say the same thing for the next 2 weeks too...

idk, this one didn't really click with me. It was fine, just kinda dull

1. Heaven or Las Vegas
2. Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
3. Iceblink Luck
4. Cherry-coloured Funk
5. Fotzepolitic
6. Fifty-fifty Clown
7. Road, River, and Rail
8. I Wear Your Ring
9. Wolf in the Breast
10. Pitch the Baby

Cocteau Twins are pretty in a way I don't really find anywhere else.

Iceblink Luck
Cherry-coloured Funk
Heaven or Las Vegas
Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
Pitch the Baby
I Wear Your Ring
Wolf in the Breast
Fifty-fifty Clown
Fotzepolitic
Road, River, and Rail

Pitch the Baby
Iceblink Luck
Fifty-fifty Clown
I Wear Your Ring
Cherry-coloured Funk
Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
Fotzepolitic
Heaven or Las Vegas
Wolf in the Breast
Road, River, and Rail

The nominator was spot-on saying that this album would be good for people who don't follow lyrics. I'm not sure if I understood a full sentence in any song here.

Cherry-Coloured Funk
I Wear Your Ring
Heaven Or Las Vegas
Frou-frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires
Pitch The Baby
Road, River, And Rail
Fifty-fifty Clown
Iceblink Luck
Fotzepolitic
Wolf In The Breast

1. Heaven or Las Vegas
2. Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
3. Cherry-coloured Funk
4. I Wear Your Ring
5. Wolf in the Breast
6. Iceblink Luck
7. Pitch the Baby
8. Fotzepolitic
9. Fifty-fifty Clown
10. Road, River and Rail

I Wear Your Ring - The second time I listened to this track specifically, it clicked what this album reminded me of. Persona 4. A great listen with wonderful music and some of the hardest to understand lyrics I'm aware of. Unfortunately, I have a headache for this ranking because I strained and tried to make out lyrics, and took psychic damage. See saw be back to you, mother's daughter two tissue follow, fire drinks technicians big 'Rona, your cherry colaaaaa

Pitch the Baby - It's a Casio on a Plastic Beach (not lyric interpretation, but what Gorillaz track I hear listening to it)

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

The nominator was spot-on saying that this album would be good for people who don't follow lyrics. I'm not sure if I understood a full sentence in any song here.

Not being able to understand the lyrics is a bit of a microcosm of the dream-like production of the entire album. It really defies against listening too closely, even though you're wondering, "wait, did she just say Cherry Coke?" But also like a dream, this is an album that I can somewhat enjoy in the moment but that completely slips out of my mind 15 minutes later.

The irony is that this album is even a little better in that regard. Try parsing anything in Carolyn's Fingers or Musette and Drums for actual text.

And then you have something like Squeeze-Wax which is super understandable all the way through.

another safety bump

1. Pitch the Baby
2. Iceblink Luck
3. Fotzepolitic
4. Cherry-coloured funk
5. Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
6. Heaven and Las Vegas
7. Wolf in the Breast
8. I Wear Your Ring
9. Road, River and Rail
10. Fifty-fifty Clown

Fun album. I always got this recommended to me and I always liked what I heard. It feels different when hearing it in an album, in a good and bad way. Good in that it really transports you away, bad in that its hard to differentiate the songs.

Cherry-coloured Funk
Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires
I Wear Your Ring
Wolf in the Breast
Heaven or Las Vegas
Fifty-fifty Clown
Iceblink Luck
Pitch the Baby
Fotzepolitic
Road, River, and Rail

One of my favorite albums we've covered that I hadn't heard before. I had high expectations after Cherry-coloured Funk and the rest did not disappoint. I love it