Artist Spotlight: Cocteau Twins made the record your Slowdive and Beach House playlists grew out of, and Heaven or Las Vegas is the door

Put on a Slowdive record, then a Beach House one, then anything that has ever been called "dreamy" on a playlist title. Somewhere behind all of it is a trio from Scotland who recorded their sixth album in a London studio in 1990 and called it Heaven or Las Vegas.

Cocteau Twins were Elizabeth Fraser on voice, Robin Guthrie on guitar and drum machine, and Simon Raymonde on bass and keys. Their trick was simple to hear and impossible to copy: Guthrie's guitars shimmer like light on water, the drum machine keeps a steady pulse underneath, and Fraser sings over the top in a language that is part English, part invention, part pure vowel. You stop trying to decode it by the second chorus. You just feel it.

If Slowdive, Beach House or Cigarettes After Sex live on your phone, this is the band they are all quietly standing on.

Start here

"Heaven or Las Vegas": the title track and the clearest picture of what the band could do. It is bright, fast for them and almost pop, with a chorus that lifts like a window opening. The official video is on the band's own channel.

"Iceblink Luck": the first single from the album, released on 27 August 1990. Fraser's lines here are some of the most readable she ever sang, and the guitar chime is the sound a thousand bedroom producers have chased since.

"Cherry-Coloured Funk": the opener. If you only trust one track to tell you whether this band is for you, let it be this one.

"Pitch the Baby": slower and more fragile. Fraser had become a parent the year before, and a lot of the record is tender in a way her earlier, more abstract songs were not.

"Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires": the closer, a mostly wordless goodbye and the most cinematic moment on the album.

Why this album, and why now

Heaven or Las Vegas came out on 17 September 1990 on 4AD, running 10 tracks and a little under 38 minutes. It was produced by the band themselves and is the one that gave them their biggest commercial moment: it reached number 7 on the UK albums chart and number 99 on the Billboard 200 in the US. It was also their last record for 4AD.

The sound travelled. Shoegaze bands in the early 1990s borrowed the wash of guitars, and dream-pop acts of the 2000s and 2010s borrowed the hush. Today, a track on a TikTok edit or a "late night drive" playlist is often one step removed from this record without the listener knowing it.

The record sits at 37 minutes, so it takes less time than a commute. Play it start to finish with headphones on.

If you like them, try

• Slowdive: the same wall of guitar, with a heavier pulse underneath. Start with "Alison". We have an If You Like list for Slowdive fans in the series.
• Beach House: Victoria Legrand's voice carries the Fraser lineage into the 2010s. Start with "Space Song".
• Pale Saints: a cult favourite from Leeds, also from the 4AD stable, with lighter, quicker songs and the same ache. Start with "Sight of You".

It does not need an anniversary to be worth your evening. It is just a very good way to spend 37 minutes tonight.