Earlier in the week, Heaven’s On Fire, a new track from The Radio Dept, surfaced on their website. It instantly hit the Popular list on Hype Machine.

The track is typical of their shoegazey, indie pop sound. As they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

The band’s forthcoming album Clinging To A Scheme was slated to come out a year ago but has constantly been put back in the release schedule by their label Labrador Records. There still appears to be some dispute about its actual release as the band’s site and record label are promoting different release dates. Don’t hold your breath.

Their debut album, Lesser Matters, was released in Sweden back in 2003 and eventually got picked up by XL Recordings for a UK release in 2004. At the time the band seemed to be on the cusp of a breakthrough of a new Swedish indie music invasion.

Notoriously shoddy live, the band made infrequent live outings and instead preferred to rely on their studio output. Alas, mainstream success eluded the band possibly in part to record label politics and distribution issues. The Radio Dept were lapped in the UK by the likes of The Concretes, The Knife, Jose Gonzalez et al.

However, for those in the know Lesser Matters is frequently held up as being one of the greatest indie pop albums, standing should to shoulder alongside the output of Sarah Records.

It is unlikely that the band will match the heights of Lesser Matters again but for a group of devotees, it really is one of the greatest records of the Millennium thus far.

Alongside Heaven’s On Fire we are also sharing I Don’t Need Love, I’ve Got My Band (the most indie title of all time?), which is taken from one of the band’s early EP’s.

Heaven’s On Fire by The Radio Dept

I Don’t Need Love, I’ve Got My Band by The Radio Dept