Heaven Up Here

Hugh Jones and the band produced it at Rockfield in March 1981, with Les Penning guest on woodwind. McCulloch said the Velvet Underground's What Goes On was on his mind and that the band wanted to make a soul album. It reached 10 in the UK and 184 in the US, their first US chart entry, and the single A Promise reached 49. The NME named it best album of 1981. Rolling Stone placed it 463rd on its 2012 list. Bill Drummond, their former manager, dismissed it in his 1999 book 45.

Hugh Jones had engineered Crocodiles and co-produced Shine So Hard, and musical differences with Drummond and Balfe led to him taking over. Les Pattinson said the band hired rehearsal space at the Ministry in Liverpool, which made them work harder. Sergeant said McCulloch considers the album Sergeant's, because Sergeant was bossy in the studio. A Promise came out on 10 July 1981, and Over the Wall was a single in Australia only.

The band made its first North American tour that spring and its only visit to Australia in November 1981. Four tracks from the Manly Vale Hotel in Sydney on 11 November are bonus tracks on the 2003 reissue, together with Broke My Neck, recorded at Tistedal Studios in Norway on 7 June 1981. Simon Reynolds compared the album with Joy Division's Closer, and said that while Closer shows Ian Curtis mesmerized by his own dread, Heaven Up Here turns its face towards the light, with No Dark Things and All I Want. Pitchfork's 2004 review heard a funkier band in Show of Strength and With a Hip, and called All My Colours, also known as Zimbo, slow-burning and flute-laden. The Guardian gave the reissue five stars.

The cover photograph was taken at Porthcawl in south Wales on a day off from recording. Brian Griffin said he used buckets of fish offal to lure the gulls into shot, and that Drummond and Rob Dickins hated the pictures. It won Best Dressed LP at the 1981 NME Awards.