c-option's Full Review: P.U.N.K. Girl [EP] by Heavenly (Pop)
How do you write about your favorite release by your favorite band* of all time? This is the dilemma I’m presented with in trying to describe Heavenly’s P.U.N.K. Girl for you. I’ve been debating this with myself for weeks, to no avail. But today I’ve decided to take up this challenge as a way of christening my newly bestowed Music Advisor status. (That’s right – I’m a Music Advisor now, kids, though I appear not to have the fancy designation on my reviews or specially printed business cards yet. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare your slings and arrows.)
Heavenly were (are, even though they no longer exist) the benign rulers of indiepop, a British boy/girl band made up of elfin goddess Amelia Fletcher, keyboard diva Cathy Rogers, muppet-monikered guitarist Peter Momtchiloff, bassist Rob Pursey, and Amelia’s drummer brother Matthew (sadly deceased, forever destroying any hopes of me catching a Heavenly comeback tour when I’m middle-aged. R.I.P. Matthew). They made crisp and catchy pop music, driven by huggable guitar and keyboard riffs, sweet but sometimes stinging lyrics, and Amelia’s angelic British-accented singing voice.
The P.U.N.K. Girl EP is a middle period Heavenly release, and came out around the same time that the riot grrrl movement was at its height (did you ever see the episode of Roseanne where Roseanne and Jackie decided to become riot grrrls??!). Thematically much of P.U.N.K. Girl is related to the music by bands like Huggy Bear and Bikini Kill that was around at the time, addressing themes of female empowerment, date rape, and girl-girl love (and I’m not talking about the made-for-Penthouse Letters kind). Heavenly took a different approach from the in-your-face riot grrrl stuff, creating music so bright and catchy that it beguiled you into taking its message seriously.
Because I love P.U.N.K. Girl so much, I’m giving this one the deluxe reviewer treatment and so offer up for your informed listening pleasure an annotated guide to the EP, track-by-track:
“P.U.N.K. Girl” – This is the most straightforward song here, a tribute to an unconventional chica who’s not necessarily a punk rocker, but whose rebellious qualities are embodied in the delightful P.U.N.K. acronym. The chorus to the song explains it all:
P is for the painful way, she makes me feel some days
U is for utopia the other times with her
N is for the new wave dreams she had back in her teens
K is for the kid in her,
My P.U.N.K. Girl! (the last line’s shouted in true riot grrrl fashion)
By the way, some people get confused by the way the tracks are listed on this CD, and think it only contains four songs, with “P.U.N.K. Girl” as the EP’s title. No, no, no! There are five songs, and this is the title track. Impress your friends with this knowledge!
”Hearts and Crosses” - This is the song that used to make all the male DJs at my college radio station (read my Can review, if you’d like to hear more about these fellas) really uncomfortable, and truly demonstrates my point about the thematic link between the songs on this EP and the riot grrrl movement. On the surface “Hearts and Crosses” sounds like any other Heavenly song, telling a tale of a girl with her head in the clouds dreaming of cinematic romances, carried along by one of those loveable keyboard riffs Cathy constructs so well. But listen to the lyrics of the bridge:
Then one romantic day he took her hand and led her away
He pushed her down, removed his clothes, and put his body
Closer than close
He held her mouth when she tried to scream
It was all so different from in her dream
He never smiled, he never whispered
He bit her hard, but never kissed her
Why does it feel so horribly real
When images of him float back into her mind?
Why does her heart hurt most at the part
When he gets up and disappears with no goodbye, with no goodbye?
Whoa. No wonder the boys got uncomfortable. When a song about rape is deadly earnest (I’m thinking Tori Amos’ “Me and A Gun” here, probably the most high profile song about the subject, and the one which has been most embraced by the women’s movement), it can be relatively easy for the ironical types among us to tune it out or make fun, no matter how powerful its message. But Heavenly sneaks up on you – they trick you into thinking it’s going to be all fun and games, and then wham! They hit you with a message. In this case, it’s one you’re unlikely to forget.
”Atta Girl” - O.K., we’re on more comfortable ground here. This is a girlie anthem, an exhortation to throw off the shackles of our male oppressors and get down and boogie. All right, I’m getting carried away, but this song does always get my toes tapping and Amelia does yell “F*** you, no way!” to her snubbed suitor in it.
”Dig Your Own Grave” - This is a sweetly melodic track which disguises some bitter, bitter lyrics about a relationship that’s just not working out. Cathy and Amelia trade off singing duties, and the whole thing is pretty darn lovely. This is probably my least favorite song on the EP, but I’d still classify it as brilliant.
”So?” - The last track on the EP is also the most chilling. Sung entirely a cappella, “So?” initially sounds like a simple tale of a failed romance with a guy who wants more than the singer’s willing to give:
So I flirted a touch
So maybe I laughed too much
So I teased you
So I said lots of stuff you interpreted as love
I didn't mean to
So you felt sure you were mine, I was yours
So I was dumb, not to make things clear before
So you hurt deep inside when I talked to other guys
So I noticed
So you gave me your time, love and hope but I kept mine
So I'm selfish
Relatively tame stuff, though beautifully and articulately expressed. But at the end, Amelia goes in for the kill, and you realize the song is much more:
But nothing I did
Or could ever have done
Would justify
What you did to
Me
Last
Night
And like a surprise ending to a book or movie, this changes your impression of everything that came before, not just for this track, but for the entire EP.
Not everything by Heavenly has this kind of serious intent behind it. Particularly with their earlier stuff, you’re more likely to find gushy love songs (including one that will help you unlock one of the mysteries of the universe – the origin of my Epinions handle) than to hear echoes of the S.C.U.M. Manifesto. But as they matured, Heavenly took on broader themes, and P.U.N.K. Girl is the best example of this, with the Heavenly kids always remembering to include that spoonful of sugary pop to help the socially charged medicine go down.
* Though if I could only take one band to the Survivor island with me, I have to admit it would be Liverpool’s finest, The Beatles, because of the sheer range of their discography.
You may be thinking, what's c-option talking about in this review, she's no advisor. Ah, sad but true. But I was once, and in keeping to my principles as an archivist I'm preserving this review in its original form (just as I've kept my crappy early epinions as they were originally written), as proof for future generations that I once achieved that apex of human achievement - Epinions Advisordom (sniff, wipe away tear).
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