The Brand New Heavies

Can it really be 30 years since The Brand New Heavies first sashayed their way into the public eye with a romantic’s heart, a hedonist’s spirit and a Superfly sensibility?

Their extraordinary new album TBNH, however, finds the band – and main songwriters funk-soul brothers Andrew Levy (bass) and Simon Bartholomew (guitar) – embarking on an entirely new chapter in their illustrious history.

A heady cocktail of Chic-style funk-pop, sunshine grooves and scorched-soul balladry, TBNH refines, reimagines and ultimately reinvents a winning formula which has won them16 top 40 hits and three million album sales. The morello cherry in the glass? A breath-taking cover of Kendrick Lamar’s These Walls, produced by Heavies uber-fan Mark Ronson.

At the album’s core, a friendship dating back to the mid-eighties, and their shared experiences growing up in Ealing, West London. For The Brand New Heavies, groove has always been in the heart. Having emerged as part of the l Acid Jazz scene, their self-titled 1990 debut made an instant connection with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

Over the last three decades The Heavies’ eclectic dance-floor aesthetic – Andrew still recalls the thrill of hearing Al Jarreau’s 1981 crossover classic Breaking Away – has seen them build an unrivaled reputation as the ultimate musician’s musicians, guaranteed to get the party started everywhere from Coachella to the Montreux Jazz Festival. However, their iconic status – acknowledged by the receipt of a ‘Living Legends’ gong at the Urban Music Awards in 2016 – masked internal tensions. These came to a head when drummer and founder member Jan Kincaid quit the band during the touring cycle for 2014’s Sweet Freaks.

Having proved their mettle in spectacular fashion with a triumphant show at Mark Ronson’s star-studded 40th birthday party in 2016, they set about making an album which would eclipse anything they’d released to date.

Recording at Chicken Shack Studio’s in Penge, they set to work under the watchful eye of enigmatic producer Sir Tristan Longworth, painstakingly building songs up from drum tracks recorded at their own Sponge Studios in Brentford (now sadly, erm, de-funked).

Rather than commit to one vocalist, the duo decided each track should have its voice, combining Heavies alumni N’Dea Davenport and Siedah Garrett, soul legends Beverley Knight and Angie Stone, current singer Angela Ricci and fresh talents Laville and Jack Knight. The result is the sublime uptown funk of TBNH. Opener Beautiful- containing the lines: ‘We’re winners/ We’re back to take it all’ sets the valedictory tone, but it’s the precision beats, strutting bass, space invader synths and shimmering guitar lines which set the pulse racing, the head spinning and the feet moving.

If a sizzling Prince-like jam ‘Heat’ – with a vocal from Honey Larochelle which has to be heard to be believed – tells you this is the sound of a band fully reacquainted with their mojo, it’s a spine-tingling ‘Just Believe In You’ – co-written with Grammy-winning lyricist Siedah Garrrett, which reflects the struggle they’ve been through to get here.

While a tender ‘Get On the Right Side’ – written by Simon in response to a break-up – pulls at the heart-strings, the emotional core of the album is ‘Together’.

Add in the Teena Marie-style disco smash ‘Dance It Out’, breezy pop banger Getaway, Stax-like strut ‘Stupid Love’ and precision-tooled jive ‘The Funk Is Back’ – sung by Simon – and you’ve got a gilt-edged collection of songs which proves The Heavies have come through their dark night of the (Philly) soul to make the best album of their career.

The Brand New Heavies are back. How we’ve missed them.