What do I often say? That it’s better to be late than never? That goes quintuple when the new Heaven 17 single is being discussed! We loved the last H17 singles to come our way in…[whistles] 2014 and 2016! “Pray” b/w”Illumination” and “Captured” b/w”Unseen” were issued on 12″ only and thankfully I was in a position to buy them from the one place where you could back then; the Heaven 17 website store. They were great singles that led me to believe that an album might be forthcoming since they were listed as “early mixes.” And were sold at their merch tables as well. But that was then and this is now.

I was looking at a forum I often forget to visit last Thursday when I saw that Heaven 17 had finally released a new song, “There’s Something About You” on August 22nd and I guess being on the Heaven 17 mailing list only counts if they think to use it. So I went to iTunes and bought it in a blinding flash. Fortunately, it’s rather excellent!

Heaven 17: There’s Something About You – UK – DL [2025]

1. There’s Something About You 4:30

This one was a very smooth ride, highlighted by elegant drum programming and skittering backbeats with tight bass programming syncopation. A Heaven 17 specialty of long standing! Glenn Gregory’s vocals were like honey and the backing vocal support was on the money. The piano solo in the middle was was a little tentative but this song was about having a featherlight touch, so I’ll acquiesce.

It didn’t sound like their great bass player, Julian Crampton was on this one like he had been on the “Pray” single, and over a decade later, who knows if he has any more attachment to the Heaven 17 organization. But I hope that he still does! Because Crampton was a bassist of the caliber that Heaven 17 originally had on their first two classic albums with John Wilson. Having that kind of player back on the records was a huge step forward for the band and I think that it serves them well.

This was a strong single but I imagine that it was down to Glenn and Martyn themselves to get this single down. The publishing info suggests that Berenice Scott may have co-written it with Glenn so this may have begun life as an Addict song before Glenn handed it off to Martyn for full Heaven 17 involvement. So perhaps Ms. Scott also played on this. The cover was the only disappointment. It looks like AI slop and Malcolm Garrett would never have typeset the copy centered!

And one more thing… the vibe here was nagging at me with some degree of familiarity as I listened to this many times over the weekend. It wasn’t until this afternoon writing this that it finally hit me what this single was reminding me of. Believe it or not, I find it shares a vibe with “Wanna Be Starting Something” from a record that sold quite a bit back in the day. Smoother. Less frantic, and without $3M worth of session pros going nuts on it. But I think that one might be able to make a case that H17 were reaching for a similar apple on the tree.

The impetus for the single was their upcoming “Sound With Vision” headlining tour of the UK coming in a month. Seeing Heaven 17 would always be special, yes? But this tour is based around the director James Strong [“Mr. Bates VS The Post Office”] documenting the tour with a special focus on the fans who have come time and time again to see the group and getting their stories down for posterity. Sort of like the trend of “fandom books” like the sort that OMD and Simple Minds have released, only applied to documentary. The dates are for major venues int he UK beginning next month.

HEAVEN 17 SOUND WITH VISION UK TOUR | 2025

• Thu 06 Nov 2025 | London | O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
• Fri 07 Nov 2025 | Bexhill | De La Warr Pavilion
• Sat 08 Nov 2025 | Norwich | Waterfront
• Mon 10 Nov 2025 | Oxford | O2 Academy 1
• Wed 12 Nov 2025 | Leeds | O2 Academy
• Thu 13 Nov 2025 | Glasgow | Barrowland
• Fri 14 Nov 2025 | Sheffield | Octagon
• Sat 15 Nov 2025 | Liverpool | O2 Academy 1
• Mon 17 Nov 2025 | Newcastle | Boiler Shop
• Wed 19 Nov 2025 | Birmingham | O2 Institute 1
• Thu 20 Nov 2025 | Bristol | O2 Academy 1
• Fri 21 Nov 2025 | Bournemouth | O2 Academy
• Sat 22 Nov 2025 | Manchester | O2 Ritz

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