There’s no disputing the fact that this record has stood the test of time. Featuring beautiful vocals and sound quality, the dream-pop staple Heaven or Las Vegas is the Scottish bands’ sixth record – and their most successful.

There’s something so remarkably wintery about this album. Whether for its ethereal dynamics on janky guitars or swooping, unintelligible vocals, it certainly defined an enigmatic sound. Founded in the Scottish Highlands in late 1979, Cocteau Twins – taking their name from a B-side song of fellow Scots Simple Minds – the three-piece would cut their teeth like a band no other trawling through the scapes of dreampop, whimsical goth and an all-round sound not really of this world.

While earlier records proved insubstantial through its haziness in sound, they paved the way for Heaven or Las Vegas to come along with a newfound clarity, paving the bands’ signature with Fraser’s vocals de-shackled and loosened with startling intimacy. For the Scots it seemed that post-1989, the penny had dropped. The sounds of ’86 Victorialand and and The Moon and the Melodies seem almost as if they were put up by a whole new collective altogether. And yet, Heaven or Las Vegas sounds like it was round the corner all this time; their magnum opus. It is quite rare for a band to hit the mark so deep into their illustrious career, especially on a sixth record – a time where both an artist and labels’ expectancy drops. Usually it is the debut album that lays the foundations and their sophomore album flexes their muscles more so, or vice versa. For an example like Cocteau Twins however, it just goes to show that there is no “right formula” for making it work. Some things are just meant to happen.

Lauded as a commercial benchmark in ethereal beauty, Heaven or Las Vegas is an immediate go-to for me during these dark, dank months where we see no sun for days at a time. Whether it’s the thawing out of opener Cherry-coloured Funk or the poetically sombre leading line of the self-titled, many cannot dispute its masterpiece placard. Even slower numbers of Wolf in the Breast have their moments of stoicism in fighting back the tears. A deeply tenuous record that has aged like a finer wine over the years, Heaven or Las Vegas single-handedly makes up a sound that defined a generation of new, hauntingly beautiful music.