Let Go, Jump In (Speak For Yourself - Imogen Heap)

Member Name: Midrange

Product:	Speak For Yourself - Imogen Heap
Date:	05/04/09 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One-woman band, perfect production and strong melodies

Disadvantages: Lyrics can be a little "girly" at times

As a school girl, Imogen Heap was disliked by her music teacher. As punishment, Imogen was banished to the music room to work alone. Without that fearsome music teacher, we may not have the artist we see (and hear) today.

Imogen Heap writes, produces and performs a style of music which can best be described as vocally-led electronica. It's generally light, but not necessarily "easy listening" in the convential sense. Heap incorporates complex drum loops, unusual instruments (including vocoders and thumb pianos) and her unique vocal style to create highly melodic, slightly schizophrenic pop music. Many tracks on "Speak for Yourself" flow beautifully - notably "Say Goodnight and Go" and the you-have-to-hear-it-to-believe-it "Hide and Seek" yet have a strange tonal quality. Unusual percussive sounds, deep vocal layers and some seriously unconvential harmonies... it's music for musicians perhaps!

Highlights on the album include the strong opener "Head Lock", with it's seamless blend of gritty hard synths and gentle, sweeping vocals. "Hide and Seek" is fantastic - I could probably write a review on that one song. Imogen performs this multi-vocal piece live with the aid of a vocoder - an electronic keyboard instrument that samples then reproduces sound at different pitches. The upshot of this is that Imogen can sing a note into the vocoder and the machine will produce a whole spectrum of notes based on the keys Imogen plays. The effect is quite astonishing and, without any other instrumental accompaniment, the piece is genuinely unique. My other favourite from the album is "Just For Now" which, again, can be performed solo with the aid of some heavy duty looping equipment and some artful timing. On the album, Imogen accompanies "Just For Now" with sweeping synths and gentle electronic beats. Live, Imogen can pull of the song with just her voice and her hands.

We turn now to Imgoen's voice. When I first heard it, I felt a distant "tribal" feeling to her delivery. She seems to have a whole range of "voices" inside her - from impressively high and perfectly pitched, to surprisingly low and powerful - she's got the lot. Her voice is very clear and clean. When listening to her live, I'm always amazed at the control she has over it - especially as she flings it around in the complicated melodies she writes. She adds a lot of charm to many of her songs by providing vocal percussion or vocal "bass lines" if you like. Her whole performance style is very endearing - she is very much a woman of style, but with some lovely down-to-earth quirkiness. Haha - I speak like I know her - obviously I don't! But from watching her interviews, I get the impression she's a lot of fun.

The down ponts of the album for me are few and far between. I regularly listen to this all the way through and it always gets my foot tapping. It works equally well as chill-out music... quite an achievement for a single CD! The lyrics can be, at times, a little "girlie" - but that's not a complaint I feel I can legimately hold against her. "Say Goodnight and Go" is so sweet and musically excellent that the slightly-creepy stalker-lady lyrics don't bother me too much. Anyway, I can't see that being followed around by Imogen Heap would be such a bad thing.

Summary: Clever pop/electronica from a very talented performer. A master of modern music.