{"id":54032,"date":"2026-05-10T23:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=54032"},"modified":"2026-05-10T23:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:17:20","slug":"review-heavenly-the-sinclair-4-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2026\/05\/10\/review-heavenly-the-sinclair-4-19\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Heavenly @ The Sinclair 4\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit:\u00a0<\/span>Alison Wonderland<\/span><\/p>\n

Review by Robin Sheng<\/span><\/p>\n

British indie pop band Heavenly performed at the Sinclair on April 19 as part of their North American tour in promotion of their newest album, \u201cHighway to Heavenly.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The album marked a return for the band after a long hiatus of nearly three decades. Primarily known for their output in the 1990s, Heavenly recently experienced a resurgence in public interest as several of their songs became viral on TikTok. Their North American tour began in April and will continue into June.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The show began with sets from two opening acts: The Swansea Sound and Jeanines. Partially comprised of Heavenly members, The Swansea Sound\u2019s performance offered fans of Heavenly a peek into the members\u2019 diverse capabilities. Songs such as \u201cMean to Be Mean\u201d stood out in their humorous and playful tone. Meanwhile, Jeanines\u2019 set offered several short but immediately resonant songs that leaned towards their catchiness and simplicity to the maximum extent.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time Heavenly took the stage, the crowd was already packed. Heavenly opened with the lead single from their latest album, \u201cPortland Town.\u201d The performance immediately highlighted several strengths of Heavenly as a band, namely their instrumental cohesion and their playful impulses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next song, \u201cSperm Meets Egg, So What?\u201d, further leans into the band\u2019s playfulness while recounting a debate of a much more serious nature. Before the performance, lead singer Amelia Fletcher announced to the audience that the song was written \u201cfor anyone with a parent\u201d, indicating that the debate on pregnancy described in the lyrics was in fact between the narrator and their parent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heavenly\u2019s performance of \u201cShallow\u201d further highlighted something in particular of this concert that stood out to me\u2014 its acoustics. The mixing and live production are done flawlessly, contributing to a highly layered and encompassing tone that extended throughout the entire song, while also maintaining the softness and warmth of its essence. Fletcher\u2019s rhythmically altered vocals in the chorus provided a sense of novelty in comparison to the studio version. The excellent live production further enhanced specific instruments and their emotional resonance on the audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cHearts and Crosses,\u201d a song that describes a story of sexual assault through an otherwise seemingly bright instrumental, was delivered to a much more potent extent in the live setting, as it further highlighted the more overtly disturbing bridge section that only featured Fletcher\u2019s vocals and the drums.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another feature that stood out was Heavenly\u2019s adeptness at demonstrating their tenser side. In songs such as \u201cDeflicted\u201d and especially \u201cPress Return\u201d, both of which are songs from the new album concerning modern politics, the band manipulated a more pointed style of guitar playing and deliberate melodies to create a more serious atmosphere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, the show also featured entirely idiosyncratic songs such as \u201cMe and My Madness,\u201d which progresses through its slightly fragmented parts. One of these parts includes a tempo change, while still maintaining an excellent sense of emotional cohesion. Overall, the setlist was a great demonstration of Heavenly\u2019s stylistic diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main section of the concert closed with \u201cP.U.N.K Girl,\u201d which immediately sent the audience swaying and dancing. It made sense that this was the song that elicited the strongest reaction from the crowd, as it was the first one to become viral on TikTok and begin the phase of renewed interest in Heavenly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The performance demonstrated Heavenly\u2019s cohesion as a band and their capability to seamlessly traverse through sections, as the contrast between the more stripped-down verses and the more expressive pre-chorus was highlighted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The encore\u2019s \u201cAtta Girl\u201d is a further testament to the band\u2019s more serious and conceptual side, in which Fletcher and the other vocalist, Cathy Rogers, performed overlapping vocal parts that culminated in Fletcher exclaiming, \u201cF**k you, no way!\u201d in the chorus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By contrast, the final song of the concert, \u201cC Is the Heavenly Option,\u201d is so thoroughly joyful that it was impossible not to enjoy the performance with a massive smile on one\u2019s face. The lead singer of the opener, Swansea Sound, returned to the stage to perform trade-off vocals with Fletcher, as a replacement for the guest vocalist Calvin Johnson on the original studio recording. The performance\u2019s liveliness and genuine expression of happiness very much ended the concert on a high note.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit:\u00a0Alison Wonderland Review by Robin Sheng British indie pop band Heavenly performed at the Sinclair on April 19 as part of their North American tour in promotion of their newest album, \u201cHighway to Heavenly.\u201d\u00a0 The album marked a return for the band after a long hiatus of nearly three decades. Primarily known for their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25732,"featured_media":53974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[2704,1584,126],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54033,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54032\/revisions\/54033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}