Once feted as the Australian indie band most likely to break through into the mainstream, Gaslight Radio turned their backs on impending fame and fortune, not to mention their audience. It seemed like they’d missed their best opportunity to be a band that matters. Not any more.

After a succession of EPs and the beautiful down-tempo debut Hitch on the Leaves, Gaslight Radio signed their lives away to a major label, released a 7” and then…nothing. After an interminable wait caused by fighting with their label and tapes of new recordings being destroyed, the band returned with the patchy Z Nation, a follow-up album that merely hinted at how good they used to be. Now Good Heavens Mean Times finds them amazingly at their peak, over a decade after formation.

It gets off to a ripper beginning with the heady rush of single “The Jewel and the Falcon”, and Gaslight Radio have never sound so determined as they do here; it’s like they realised they were missing out on being a great band, and decided to make up for it. And quickly – this album flies by in just over half an hour, with songs like “The Sparrow and the Nun” and the rollicking “Hard For a Crumb” the briefest of the band’s career.

Recorded at Birdland Studios in Melbourne, Good Heavens Mean Times is amazingly positive and poppy – it’s Gaslight Radio at their best. The band that unleashed the sublime “Tarmac and Lime” on their debut EP Torchin’ Towns, Hankerin’ Homes is back here, revelling in tight dynamics and powered choruses.