HEAVENLY レコード& CD

Review: Skep Wax Records are reissuing all four Heavenly albums over a two-year period and this is the third instalment, following on from Heavenly vs Satan and Le Jardin De Heavenly. Each LP includes relevant single releases as additional tracks, a 7" booklet with lyrics, pictures, and new sleeve notes by the members of the band. The Decline and Fall of Heavenly came in 1994: the album signified a band rapidly expanding its horizons, veering confidently from high speed indie-punk ('Me And My Madness') to cool surf instrumental ('Sacramento') and back again to the sweetest indiepop ('Itchy Chin'). The singles, which include the band's most celebrated tune - 'P.U.N.K Girl' - demonstrate the confidence Heavenly derived from their involvement in the nascent Riot Grrrl scene. All the anger is there, the politics are direct and crystal clear, yet the whole thing is still delivered with the sweetest pop melodies, like being punched and kissed at the same time.

Review: Le Jardin De Heavenly is one of the four Heavenly albums scheduled for reissue this year by Skep Wax Records. The band have marked that news by reuniting for two special sold-out dates at Bush Hall in London as appetite for their music feels as strong as it did first time round back in the 1990s as the new generation pick up on it via mediums like Tiktok and streaming platforms. This record is packed with melody-laden pop tunes, complex harmonies and plenty of intense drums, guitar flourishes and sharp and loud riffs. Elements of early shoegazae can also be heard next to some dreamier pieces. A real classic.

Review: The first album from jangle-indie band Heavenly, following a spate of 7" singles in 1990 that hardly broke the charts, yet made a worthy statement of their own. The Oxford five-piece might be considered an early example of the provincial intellectual indie-band idyll; their songs were written by lead songwriter Amelia Fletcher, backed up by the likes of guitarist Peter Momtchilloff and keyboardist Cathy Rogers. The music is a sweet proto-shoegaze dream, uptempo with up-down drums, and with lyrical themes largely centring on dreamy boys.

Review: Given the not-so-subtle reference to seminal 1960 French New Wave movie A Bout De Souffle (Breathless), you could be forgiven for thinking this retrospective compilation was from the Marseille power-metal outfit, Heavenly. It's not, and instead shines a light on the jangly indie pop of Oxfordshire, UK outfit, Heavenly.

Emerging from the ashes of Talulah Gosh, and eventually evolving into Marine Research following the death of Mathew Fletcher in 1996, for the uninitiated, think poetic lyrical delivery with punchy observational lines and stressed but harmonious guitar riffs that envelop the listener, combining to define a sonic space that's somewhere between Trash Kit, Garbage and Hinds, only with a thick sugar coating. Releasing just four albums in their time, what's here is a great insight into their catalogue and a good jumping off point for what happened before, and next.