WHEN BRITAIN WAS GREAT | VINYL RECORD (LP)

Heavenly, Heavenly return! As fiercely independent as any punk band, but as sweetly melodic as any chart-topping act, Heavenly combine sharp-edged lyrics with shamelessly joyful pop music. 'Highway To Heavenly' shares this musical recipe with the band's first four albums, all of which were released in the 1990s at a time when sensitive indie types in the UK were sheltering from the prevailing macho-rock storm under the Sarah Records umbrella, and when women in the US were starting to find their Riot Grrrl voices in the small town of Olympia, where labels like K and Kill Rock Stars were designing a new creative space. Heavenly were on Sarah Records in the UK and on K in the US - 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. In terms of style, Heavenly presented an androgynous look - short hair and pinafores for Amelia and Cathy - while Peter Rob and Mathew determinedly avoided the theatrics of male rock. Heavenly did not want to fit in with the hyper-gendered corporate music scene of the 1990s, and the band have stayed determinedly independent ever since (this new album is released on Rob and Amelia's Skep Wax label). 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.