Album Review
Heavenly
Highway To Heavenly
Skep Wax Records
Released today: 27 Feb 2026
(4.5 /5)
Heavenly are seen as* the originators of a whole genre of music – known to some as ‘jangle’, others as ‘twee’ and to the band themselves as ‘indiepop’. As fiercely independent as any punk band, but as sweetly melodic as any chart-topping act, Heavenly combine sharp-edged politics with shamelessly joyful pop music… (says the Press Release) It’s 30 years since their last album and they sound just the same – and are still one of the most under-rated, overlooked and influential of pop groups, says Ged Babey, because Heavenly have always existed in-opposition.
Always a soft target for the English music press inkies back-in-the-day, “Heavenly just need Timmy the dog and they are Enid Blytons ‘Famous Five form a Band’…”. Cynical smugness based on seeing a photo of the band rather than actually listening to the music.
The beautiful written interview with Heavenly published a few days ago on LTW puts the record straight and confirms everything the cool kids knew about them. That they were and still are the most quietly influential of bands and the ‘missing link’ between punk, Riot Grrrl, C86 and the purist spirit of genuinely Indie (as in independent) music.
P.U.N.K Girl is probably their best known song. In recent times it has found a whole new audience on TikTok apparently. A whole new generation love Heavenly.
It could be said that bands like The Cardigans and Belle and Sebastian took elements of and inspiration from Heavenly and their ilk and made it a commercial success – but, decent as they are, they never matched them in terms of originality, depth, zeal and idealism.
Heavenly were on Sarah Records in the UK – where sensitive indie types in the UK were sheltering from the prevailing macho-rock storm- and on K in the US – where women in the US were starting to find their Riot Grrrl voices and were designing a new creative space.- and maybe this is a useful shorthand for understanding the band’s ability to meld the attitude of American Riot Grrrl bands with the pop charms of the English indie scene.
There is a great story here about the time Huggy Bear supported Heavenly… which highlights the difference between the two bands but proves that the girl/boy revolution quite possibly started the day Amelia Fletcher & co first took to a stage.
Of course, it all started with Punk. The members of Heavenly were (pre-teenage) children in 1977 so too young to be actual ‘punks’ but it was still their starting point. (That and perhaps the Carpenters and Mamas & the Papas albums in their parents record collections.) Punk, as in Buzzcocks, the Jam & Undertones, TVP’s… Romance, politics, teenage kicks and DIY independence that is, which Heavenly founders Amelia, Matt & Rob, basically took onboard and years later became the most punk rock they could be, by being the opposite to everyone else… (I’m including their earlier band – the legendary Tallulah Gosh* – who WERE more the originators – whereas Heavenly later became the emblematic, definitive ‘Indiepop’ band – the press release fudges this for purposes of brevity….)
Instead of sounding like the surly, stoned, macho alternative rock bands of the era Heavenly made bright-eyed, bushy-tailed melodic, intelligent pop music and sang about rape, societal expectations and gender-politics. They were stylistically, artistically and commercially in opposition to pretty much everything else that was going on in pop & rock music at the time. (And in many ways they still are…)
For a thoroughly English band they took a lot of inspiration from the sound of Young Scotland too – Orange Juice and the Pastels in particular I would guess. As well as Altered Images and the (English) Marine Girls and (Welsh) Young Marble Giants.
The other important distinction, which made Heavenly what they were, and remain, was the unconscious decision that Amelia Fletcher made was to sing in her own natural voice – rather than try and sing like Siouxsie or any other quirky affectation. The dreaded ‘twee’ tag stuck – due to the bands dress-sense as well. But the people who coined it obviously never listened properly to the bands lyrics.
Atta Girl contained several f-words but they are barely noticeable because of the conversational narrative of the song and sweetness of the vocal. And the acapella So from the P.U.N.K Girl EP is the same subject matter and as devastating as the Specials with Rhoda Dakar’s The Boiler.
Decades passed and the band members had day jobs, families and numerous musical ‘projects’. Amelia got an OBE for her work (at the Office of Fair Trading), Rob was involved in bringing ‘Being Human’ to the TV screens and (I like to think, being the inspiration for…) ‘Gilbert Fun’ in some way.
What with comparatively recent releases from Swansea Sound, Catenary Wires, the Skep Wax label (with gems like Tulpa) and an album with Brian Bilston -the “Indie Generations Poet Laureate” – I’m surprised Heavenly had time to reassemble…
Portland Town was the first sweet taste of the brand new material.
The new songs are full of anger, of grief, of empathy, of love, and set themselves in opposition to the resurgence of the cold ‘masculine energy’ that is making the world a miserable, aggressive place today.
Press Return is a demolition of those men who think technology and wealth make them winners rather than sad losers.
Excuse Me is an outburst of punk energy, as effervescent as a song on the first Undertones album, gleefully celebrating a teenage romance with the nerdiest boy in school.
A Different Beat tells the entire story of a doomed relationship, its heroine falling for and then escaping from an oppressive man, before heading for the metaphorical disco of freedom.
Deflicted is one of those classic Heavenly relationship songs which takes some working out. The melody and poetry and guitar/keyboard interplay is great and the Shangri-La’s style intro ‘I wasn’t expecting Love. But I wasn’t expecting That!’ is fabulous.
Good Times – a perfectly ironic title, has xylophone and a dreamy vibe and chorus that sounds very like early Lush (another former contemporary band who reaped the rewards Heavenly missed out on…)
Heavenly have clearly been to a disco or two lately: opening track Scene Stealing feels like a distant cousin of Blondie’s ‘Heart Of Glass’ and tells the story of self-obsessed YouTube influencers who don’t know how to treat women with respect.
The often overlooked guitarist Peter Momtchiloff “is one of the best guitarists ever, and I don’t mean in a flash of technical way…very original, and off the wall in style” – Arthur Jay from contemporaries The Groove Farm told me a few years back – and he is very much Heavenlys ‘secret weapon’, tactically deployed throughout the album.
The longer, slower songs on side two are my personal favourites: The Neverseen and She Is The One – have plaintive echoes of the Only Ones and are a boy/girl rhumba respectively. I love the mention of a spider-plant, taking over their world by stealth and a boiling kettle steaming up the kitchen window. These are the kind of details only Amelia Fletcher can make sound romantic.
Album closer That Last Day may be most poignant song about bereavement you will hear all year, certainly the only one you’ll want to sing along to. It’s all pop here, but Highway To Heavenly has a huge range of tones and moods.
For Heavenly fans from the old days, Highway To Heavenly isn’t just a comeback – it’s a welcome return where, despite being older & wiser, they haven’t changed at all – and in fact are even better.
It’s like to going back to the place you were born, that you left 30 years ago – and instead of it being unrecognisable, it’s stayed the same and is even more beautiful than you remembered it being. This doesn’t happen often…
Heavenly, the definitive ‘indiepop’ band, retain everything that made them great and set them apart in the first place. Their values, integrity – and their worth.
They never achieved the fame and fortune or even the critical acclaim they deserved – because they never compromised and fate intervened – but they carried the flame of pure independence, brilliant, smart songs with a musicality that was sunshine and optimism and more ‘for real’ than any Corporate Indie careerist band you care to mention.
~
“Come on Timmy, keep up” said Amelia. “We’ve got to find Spikey the dealer to load up on delicious drugs and scones before we go on tour!”
TOUR DATES Tour dates TICKET LINKS
28 Feb ATHENS Temple
5 Mar RAMSGATE Music Hall
6 Mar PARIS Petit Bain
8 Mar LONDON The Lexington (matinee, all ages)
14 Mar OXFORD The Nest
18 Mar MANCHESTER Yes
19 Mar GLASGOW Mono
20 Mar SUNDERLAND Pop Recs
21 Mar SHEFFIELD Sidney & Matilda
26 Mar BRIGHTON Hope & Ruin
4 Apr CARDIFF Wales Goes Pop
16 Apr WASHINGTON DC Black Cat
17 Apr PHILADELPHIA Johnny Brenda’s
18 Apr NEW YORK Bowery Ballroom
19 Apr BOSTON The Sinclair
21 Apr TORONTO The Great Hall
23 Apr CHICAGO Empty Bottle
7 May VALENCIA, Loco Club
8 May MADRID Sala Galileo Galilei
10 May SAN SEBASTIAN Sala Dabadaba
21 Jun SAN DIEGO Casbah
22 Jun LOS ANGELES Regent Theater
24 Jun SAN FRANCISCO Great American Music Hall
26 Jun PORTLAND Aladdin Theater
27 Jun SEATTLE The Crocodile
28 Jun VANCOUVER Hollywood Theatre
Highway To Heavenly on Bandcamp
Skep Wax Facebook
All words Ged Babey
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