Imogen Heap – Speak For Yourself
Posted by AlMachine on Tuesday, August 2, 2005

Gentle easy listening electronica that opens with ‘Headlock’ containing the sort of quirky bleeps that made ‘The Postal Service’ feel so fresh.

There’s less lo-fi charm on the second track ‘Goodnight and Go’ which has flourishes of light percussion instrumentation sprinkled over Imogen’s soft vocal delivery. The track has a real dreaminess to it; and for some reason reminded me of early 90’s pop group ‘Dubstar’.

There are so many comparisons over the album; “Loose Ends’ could be ‘Garbage’ without the dirty sneer; whilst the vocal delivery on tracks such as ‘I Am In Love With You’ sound like a slightly more electronic ‘Tori Amos’. These are in addition to the obvious reference points ‘Zero 7’ and Imogen’s band ‘Frau Frau’.

‘Hide and Seek’ has a tribal choir like feel to it, and was recently used during the pivotal scene in the season finale of cult US show the OC, which has given Imogen Heap some much deserved publicity. Many of the tracks here have the feeling that they could be used to soundtrack a television show, take ‘Have You Got It In You’ with a driving mellow tune and a slightly understated vocal.

Lyrically the album seems to start of with break-ups and betrayal before coming full circle and letting love win through as the album draws to a close. It’s like a musical Hollywood movie, or one of the cheesy American TV shows it soundtracks. Escapism.

Greg Thomas


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