CAD3419
Release Date: 19 September 1988
"If Heaven Or Las Vegas is a gorgeous sunset panorama conveyed by a seamlessly shot and very generously budgeted tracking shot that passes through the centre of a beautifully overdeveloped city, Blue Bell Knoll is a morning amble through a frozen meadow in the middle of Highland nowhere. The same songwriting and arrangement principles that underpinned Heaven… are here, but in a purposefully skeletal form of what they would later become." - sputnikmusic.com
"What’s particularly remarkable about the album is how compact it is: All but two of these 10 tracks clock in around three-and-a-half minutes, and the whole thing is over and done with in a mere 38 minutes. That succinctness may have something to do with Raymonde’s increasing role in the group. His bass playing, especially on “Pitch the Baby” and "Fotzepolitic" not only adds to the texture and, yes, the groove of the music, but also gingerly anchors these songs: He prevents them from flying off into the ether, but never lets them grow rigid or staid. The result is an album that perfectly balances ambition with accessibility." - Pitchfork