Heavenly Is a Place on Earth
Photos by Nalinee Darmrong
Words by Mickey McCarter
Indie pop history came to life in the very best way at Black Cat on a recent DC evening as Heavenly came calling with a set of songs that sound amazingly fresh.
The English twee pop hitmakers are touring the USA for the first time in three decades with their first album of new material in 30 years — Highway to Heavenly, released on front woman Amelia Fletcher’s own label, Skep Wax. Their Black Cat leaned heavily on the new album, opening with “Portland Town,” remind us that the band can be both playful and biting.
The new tunes were refreshingly wonderful: Tracks like “Good Times” and “Skep Wax” propelled the night along with jangly guitars and punchy rhythms while Highway track “Excuse Me” and 1993 single “Hearts and Crosses” gave us bright melodies that hid complex emotions.
Watch the official music video for video for “Excuse Me” by Heavenly on YouTube:
Talking about the new album is all well and good, but can I emphasize what a sense of relief Heavenly brought with them? Somehow, this music is curative, a tonic for what ails you, a bit of relief from the favored tough talk of the times. The songs have style and English elegance with smart words and slick guitars. If nothing else, a Heavenly show is a great escape from the outside world.
And of course, Heavenly explored the band’s great catalog, treating the Black Cat to a a pair of songs from debut album Heavenly vs. Satan (1991) — playing “Our Love Is Heavenly” early in the show and “Shallow” in the Middle.
In the second half of the show, it was decided in an impromptu manner to toast the birthday of guitarist Ian Button, who earned another year on April 16, and so the band broke out into the “Happy Birthday” song with the help of the audience.
Heavenly broke out some standalone singles for the show toward the end, notably closing on 1993’s “PUNK Girl” and “Dig Your Own Grave” in the encore. Heavenly wrapped the whole thing up with a show stopping “C Is the Heavenly Option” from their 1992 sophomore album, Le Jardin de Heavenly — and they were joined onstage by opener Lightheaded.
Watch the official music video for “C Is the Heavenly Option” by Heavenly on YouTube:
Speaking of Lightheaded, the DIY Jersey Shore outfit was the perfect American opener for Heavenly, and this is where we can shed a bit of light into Heavenly as “indie pop history came to life” as I said at the start. Heavenly became standard bearers for the C86 sound — twee pop heroes! Not only did they dominate indie pop in the Britain of the early ’90s, they found American admirers as well. Slumberland Records was founded in 1989, and heavily influenced by what was going on in England with shoegaze and twee pop at the time, becoming a US indie label with a strong British indie-pop accent!
Although only formed in 2017 by Cynthia Rittenbach and Stephen Stec, Lightheaded is very much a Slumberland band. And now they are a Skep Wax band, too, having signed to the Heavenly label.
To put more last stamp for now on the indie pop history of it all, the very first band on the bill, Swansea Sound, featured Amelia Fletcher opening for her main act Heavenly! The band also includes Heavenly guitarist Ian on drums rather and guitarist Rob Pursey. Swansea Sound formed in 2020 during the pandemic and before the official return of Heavenly, and so all of this appears to have been brewing for some time.
As for Swansea Sound, I really enjoyed the humorous “I Didn’t Mean to Be Mean,” relating a spat between a music journalist and Amelia and “Far Far Away,” a song the band wrote about the late Buzzcocks legend Pete Shelley.
Well, I have babbled on enough, but I guess Heavenly will do that to you, particularly if you have enthusiasm for ’80s and ’90s English pop, so let me leave it there for now. Go see Heavenly on this triumphant return to the United States. You’ll surely walk out with brighter spirits and a skip in your step.
Here are some photos of Swansea Sound, Lightheaded, and Heavenly performing live at Black Cat on April 16, 2026. All photos copyright and courtesy of Nalinee Darmrong.
