Cocteau Twins ‎– Heaven Or Las Vegas

why is this so wanted ?? words words words words

A few years ago I bought the 2014 reissue but ended up selling it as I found it unlistenable - compressed, variable volume between tracks, 'Iceblink Luck' sounding bizarrely tinny, as if it had been mastered differently from the rest of the album. I had been looking out for an OG pressing, but they are out of my price range. When I noticed this 2020 reissue I thought I'd take a chance, and bought a copy from Norman records. Is it an entirely new reissue? It's hard to be sure, as the sleeve, hype sticker and matrix numbers are near identical to those listed for the 2014 version (the machine stamped numbers are different though).

What I can say is that it sounds much better to me than the 2014 reissue. It's still a touch constrained in dynamics, but not uncomfortably compressed. 'Iceblink Luck' sounds like it belongs with the rest of the record, instead of sounding like an incongruous low-res mp3 file accidentally dropped into the master.

Maybe I just got lucky with this copy (after having been unlucky with my copy of the 2014 version), but at a reasonable price I would say this is definitely worth getting. Apart from the mastering, everything else is good - quiet, clean pressing, thick card inner sleeve, nicely printed. I'd be interested to hear other folks' experience.

this is an absolutely godawful pressing; every time i put it on i feel like i'm listening to a warped cassette. i can't believe 4AD signed off on this. please save yr money.

Favorite album of all time. Heaven or Las Vegas simply never gets old. Strong 5/5

Pretty disappointing. I'm new to the vinyl world so please take this with a grain of salt.

I'm very familiar with HoLV but have only listened to the digitally remastered version available on Apple Music. This vinyl is not nearly as clean. Some songs, particularly the ones with the most guitar washes and reverb, sound blown out. This is the first time I've encountered this on my record player and was pretty shocked to hear it on multiple tracks throughout the record. Additionally, the fade-outs on several tracks were abrupt or taken out completely. The only time this change was welcomed was on Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires, where we are treated almost entirely to an additional chorus. On the digital remaster, this extra chorus is faded out.

While the music remains beautiful, I recommend you buy a different version of the vinyl.

Agree with most of the reviews here that the mastering for this pressing is all over the place even on the MPO pressing, those here who say it’s perfect need to use better gear or listen close because there are awful highs and sibilance on a couple tracks, particularly on ‘Iceblink Luck’ and ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ as stated in the other reviews here. Sadly not gonna shell out for a couple hundred for an original of this one so just gonna live with the couple noisey tracks, also the scanned artwork on this reissue does look pretty crap, funny that just the track listings were newly added, it’s a shame that 4AD couldn’t have worked a proper reissue for this instead of going the cheapie route ...pretty poor all around overall but heck, whaddya want for 25 bucks?

There are two different pressings listed above. One is pressed at GZ, the other at MPO. I’ve had both and the MPO pressing is much better sounding. More dynamic with stronger bass presence. These initials are also in the MPO pressing, as noted below by Slav_Udachin: LVC - Not sure who that is but they did a better cutting job than GZs house engineer.

I also heard the distortion on the last tracks of each side. This is classic “inner groove distortion” or IGD. I’m running a Technics SL-1210MK2 with an AT95E cartridge mounted on the stock Technics headshell. Height set to 1.5 with the stock rubber mat that came with the turntable.

I increased the weight of my tonearm to 2.5 grams and adjusted the anti-skating to match. Those tracks sound perfect now. YMMV

I have variant JAX 8 C (not listed here) as well as 5 C. They differ in that the edge text on 5 C is pink & blue. On 8 C it is yellow & green.

the title song on this UK original pressing sounds......really not good.

when I got my first original pressing,the unclear,noisy sound bother me on the title song. I thought is because of my copy.
so I bought another original copy and it still sounds like that.

I also have the Deutsche pressing and the reissue, and the title song sounds good on them.

BUT all other songs are better on the UK original.