From Last.fm -

Heavenly was a 1990s twee pop band, originally forming in Oxford, England in 1989. amelia fletcher (vocals), Mathew Fletcher (drums; Amelias brother), Peter Momtchiloff (guitar) and Robert Pursey (bass) had all been members of Talulah Gosh, a key member of the c86 scene which preceded the twee movement, formed in 1986.

Heavenly debuted with the 7 single I Fell in Love Last Night, followed by another 7, Our Love Is Heavenly, both released in 1990 on Sarah Records. Heavenly Vs. Satan, the groups debut album, came out in 1991. At this stage in their career, Heavenlys songs were still mainly concerned with an innocent view of love, whether or not requited, and the instrumentation remained very much the same jangly guitar style used by Talulah Gosh.

Before releasing the critically acclaimed Le Jardin de Heavenly, Cathy Rogers (keyboard, back-up vocals) joined the band. Her harmony vocals and keyboards became an integral part of the groups sound. Another strikingly different element of the groups second album was the inclusion of the track, PlayC Is the Heavenly Option, featuring the guest vocals of K Records founder Calvin Johnson, who released Heavenlys records in the USA. The song even featured amelia fletcher rapping, after a fashion. Calvin Johnson would go on to provide additional guest vocals on each of the Heavenly albums following [album artist=Heavenly]Le Jardin De Heavenly.

Before their next long-player, Heavenly released two non-album 7 singles, P.U.N.K. Girl and Atta Girl. These signalled a growing complexity in Amelias songwriting, particularly Atta Girl, in which Amelia and Cathy sung in rapid-fire trade-off vocals. A broadening (and darkening) of lyrical subject matter was shown in the B-side, Hearts and Crosses, which told the story of a date rape, with a cheesy keyboard riff providing an ironic counterpoint.

The bands third LP was The Decline and Fall of Heavenly (1994). Here the group were at their most commercial and at their most attuned with the growing Britpop movement. The arrangements expanded even more to include strings and a large amount of percussion, and the dual-vocal trick was used on several tracks. Lyrically, the old romantic view of love was largely banished, with tracks such as Modestic and Three Star Compartment portraying people trapped in loveless relationships and Sperm Meets Egg, So What? (the title adapted from McCarthys Boy Meets Girl, So What?) being about an unwanted pregnancy. The tunes remained as jolly as ever.

The groups last album was Operation Heavenly (1996). Sarah Records had closed while the album was being recorded, so the album came out on Wiiija instead. Arriving in the middle of the Britpop boom, the album contained some tracks that seemed like deliberate attempts at a contrived cool factor - Ben Sherman, with its self-conscious Uma Thurman and Nick Hornby namedrops, or a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg-penned and France Gall-performed Nous ne sommes pas des anges, sung entirely in French by Amelia, for instance. Though it was still recognisably the Heavenly sound, and even included a second Calvin Johnson guest spot on the track Pet Monkey. However, shortly before the release of Operation Heavenly, Mathew Fletcher, the bands drummer and Amelias brother, committed suicide. The remaining members announced that the band name Heavenly was to be retired, but that they would continue, using the name Marine Research, a moniker under which they released a single album, 1999s Sounds From The Gulf Stream, on K Records (it was not released separately in Britain). Afterwards, Marine Research dissolved. The bands core members reformed in 2002 as Tender Trap, releasing their debut album, Film Molecules, on K Records once again. 2006 saw the release of two new Tender Trap releases - two EPs, Language Lessons and Como te Llamas?, and a full-length album, 6 Billion People.......[Read Less]