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AllMusic
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Entertainment Weekly	B−
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NME	8/10
Pitchfork Media	10/10
Q
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Select	4/5
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Heaven or Las Vegas is the sixth album by Scottish band Cocteau Twins, their last for the music label 4AD. In terms of chart positions, it was the most successful Cocteau Twins album, reaching No. 7 in the UK.

Despite 4AD president Ivo Watts-Russell proclaiming it one of the best-ever releases on his label, he released the group from their contract at the end of 1990 because his relationship with the band had soured.

The album is noteworthy for the musical evolution that the band displayed at the time. The lyrics of vocalist Elizabeth Fraser were more intelligible; many concerned her newborn daughter Lucy Belle. "Suddenly I had confidence which I'd never ever had in my life," Fraser said, "which I consequently lost after I had the baby, because it's such a frightening experience you lose it again and you have to start over again. But it does change you."

Guitarist Robin Guthrie was experiencing problems with drug addiction. As a result of his decreased time in the studio, bassist Simon Raymonde's playing was more in the forefront.

"We've had it in the back of our mind that we wanted to play live again," said Guthrie at the time of the album's release, "so we thought we'd make some of the pieces more like songs we could actually play live… We like it better than all our last records. That's why we continue to make more – because if we made the perfect record we'd sit back and say, 'We can't do any better than that.' We think all our other ones are fucking crap. I'm slightly proud of a couple of tracks on a couple of them, but essentially I'm really embarrassed about what we've done in the past…"

Heaven or Las Vegas was released in 1990 by 4AD in the UK, and 4AD/Capitol Records in the US. 4AD later reacquired American distribution rights for much of its back catalog, resulting in a 2003 reissue solely on 4AD, which was remastered by Guthrie.

The album has received positive critical acclaim. "Heaven or Las Vegas is their finest hour yet," enthused Martin Aston in Q. "Ten exquisite moments that make Kate Bush – their only possible comparison – sound as airborne as Motörhead." The album subsequently featured in the magazine's "best of the year" roundup: "The Cocteaus continue on their inimitable course, blissfully regardless of what's going on in the world outside their surreal reality."

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