Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself
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Free Music Notes for Speak for Yourself
Free Music Review: This is THE BEST of 2005....
Hit: 5 Stars
WOW! I have been waiting for this CD for about a year now. I heard "Loose Ends" at work and I waited and waited. Well, the wait was well worth it! This album is just so GOOD...plain and simple! Imogen Heap completely went above and beyond on this album. You really get the sense that she truly poured every bit of her heart and soul into these 12 tracks of brilliance. Even her liner notes share her honesty and her passion for making amazing music. Her lyrics really hit the heart and stimulate the mind! Here is my opinion of the album, song by song:
1) Headlock: I feel like I'm dreaming when I hear this song. This song is a great way to start off the album. It's so light yet commanding. 9.5/10
2) Goodnight and Go: This is one of my favorites. I DEFINITELY identify with this song. The first few lines are so descriptive and gorgeous that I can't help but feel every word. The chorus is kinda my life story. 12/10
3) Have You Got It In You: The beginning makes me think of Sade. This is such a truthful song about being on the brink of just giving up and calling it a day. Gorgeous song from beginning to end! 10/10
4) Loose Ends: This is the reason I was ever interested in buying this CD! This song is so damn catchy, you'll be humming it for days...in my case, months! This song is just delicious! 13/10
5) Hide and Seek: WOW! This song is a huge risk but it works beautifully! It's haunting, mesmerizing, and brilliant! This song alone is enough reason to buy this album! My only problem is the position of this song on the track list. This should have closed the album. 100/10
6) Clear The Area: This song is so chill. I find this to be a sad song yet so loving. 10/10
7) Daylight Robbery: This has more of a rock edge to it in the beginning and in the chorus. It's a very nice and well-executed change of pace. The song is still very good but I feel is overshadowed just a bit by the brilliance of the rest of the CD. 7.9/10
8) The Walk: This song speaks about something I feel A LOT of people have gone through. It's about having all these incredible thoughts and feelings that you never wanted to have in the first place and dealing with it. 10/10
9) Just For Now: This reminds me of the holidays. The words of this song seems to happen every holiday season. This song is kind of funny. 9/10
10) I Am In Love With You: This song starts off very lovely and then just changes direction right at the end. It's just perfect to do so since it just works! My only problem is that it slightly has the feeling of filler based on the time of the song. Don't get me wrong, it's a great song but the others overshadow this track. 8/10
11) Closing In: This is such a touching and charming song about the beginning of a serious relationship. This song is just breath-taking! It asks so many questions that I think a lot of us wish we had the courage to ask. 10/10
12) The Moment I Said It: Imogen Heap closes the album with a performance that is so honest. This is so relaxed and so understated, that it makes for a gorgeous exit to THE BEST ALBUM OF 2005. 10/10
In closing, this album is miraculous and it has truly been a priviledge to be invited inside this stunning artist's mind, soul, and heart. This could be the album to beat at the Grammys if anyone at NARAS had the guts to vote for it! You can tell that this amazing woman makes music that she believes in and I am now a fan forever. Please, do youself the favor and buy this album...
Free Music Review: Outright Phenomenal!
Hit: 5 Stars
After her successful musical outings with Frou Frou, Imogen Heap has finally decided to drop her long anticipated and overdue second solo set. From the very start of the album, the frou frou influence is evident, the electronic blips and bleeps throughout are welcome familiar sounds that soothe all the frou frou fans who wanted a follow-up album. However, her new music isn't completely like frou frou, she has managed to throw in some of her own unique elements. She has managed to provide listeners with a beautifully crafted album of music. It has taken quite a while for her to release this album but it was well worth the wait. Her vocals are spot-on, the lush and luxurious voice from frou frou is still there and she has even managed to take her vocal styling to completely new levels... her sexy "howling" (for lack of better term) is scattered through out the album and can make the hairs on your skin stand.
Some of the most impressive tracks include 'Goodnight and Go' (a radio friendly electronic pop-rock number that is an immediate favorite), 'Have you Got it in You?' (a chilling eerie sounding track, with some great "howls" ;) ), 'Loose Ends' (a resplendent and energized electronic track), 'Hide and Seek' (the 'it' track of this album featured on the O.C. season finale that sky-rocketed her to popularity; an a-cappella track whose popularity speaks for itself), 'Daylight Robbery' (an awesome and unabashed energized rock track that oozes with zest, easily the most energetic track with some great electric guitar riffs and an amazing chorus with that great howl turned on maximum), 'The Walk' (a great mid-tempo track, another easy favorite), 'Just for Now' (a sparsely-arranged and drop-dead gorgeous ballad), 'I am in Love With You' (a cute and upbeat track with a nice chorus), 'Closing In' (a sweet and charming mid-tempo track) and 'The Moment I Said it' (another sparsely-arranged and drop-dead gorgeous ballad)
The songs presented on this album are truly all magnificent. Very few complaints about this album can be taken seriously since there have been very little releases that compare to the grandeur of this album. Her vocal ability alone is reason enough to get this album; her vocals inject these otherwise cold songs with life, emotion and passion. The electronic pop-rock sound is also very appealing; it seems to suit her perfectly. This seems to be a genre that she seems to exhibit the most potential in. Her songs are all adroitly produced and arranged by herself and this album is truly a masterpiece. This is an album everyone should own, you haven't heard really spectacular and breathtaking music 'til you've heard Imogen Heap... yes she's that amazing.
Free Music Review: Beautiful and inspiring!
Hit: 5 Stars
Recently, I put my iTunes on shuffle (not sumthin I normally do), and Imogen's "Hide and Seek" started to play. My whole body started to tingle cuz I just love this song, and I hadn't heard in quite a while. After the song had finished, I immediately took my iTunes off shuffle mode, and started "Speak For Yourself!" from track one. "Ahh....!!" I thought to myself, "...such an inspiring album!"...I bathed my hearing senses with every nuance I could soak in. Into my 2nd-listen-in-a-row through the album, I had a disturbing thought! - I had never written a review of one of my all time favorite albums, ever!
First of all, as anyone would agree, Imogen has a beautifully trained voice. She can transition from a soft whisper to a scream like nobody's business! (ok, she really doesn't scream). But in other words, I guess the point I'm trying to get out, is that she doesn't sing they same way, in every song....she's a very dynamic vocalist! And from what I understand, she writes, sings, composes and produces most everything herself (wow).
Her music, second of all, is very impressive. It's vibrant, rich, intelligent and full of subleties that paints a very unique and wonderful soundscape she can call all her own. Song structures are generally comprised of electronics as the backbone, such as percussion and bass lines, while the more melodic instrumentation may be a combination of piano, strings, xylophone, or some other exotic sounding instrument, mixed with other synthetic tembres. As an analogy, the music is very synchronous and acrobatic, much like watching a complicated peice of machinery at work. A friend recently sent me a link to one of her video blogs where she just aquired an instrument called "De Hang", it's like a hand-held steel drum, but much better sounding (in my opinion). I hope to hear this thing in her upcoming release this Fall! :)
And speaking of her blogs, I've been catching up on them and have formed somewhat of a sisterly liking to her worldly persona. As a musician myself, her passion for her music is very inspiring and motivating. As a person, her passion about life and little things is apparently something she enjoys, and is inspiring as well. I feel even more connected to her and her music, thanks to her video blogs (which are on YouTube and accessible from her website here: http://www.imogenheap.co.uk/).
Anyhooo....regardless of what your musical preference is, you should take a listen to "Speak For Yourself". It's a "must have" in my book!
Free Music Review: I think it's getting serious...
Hit: 5 Stars
...my love affair with Imogen's voice, and music, that is.
I, like so many others, came to know and love Imogen's voice and unique musical sound on the Frou Frou album "Details", or though the song "Let Go" (this first song on "Details") which is featured on the soundtrack for "Garden State". Such a unique voice, and the music is completely bewitching. Trip-hop for sure, I would say, but with a seriously avant guarde/ecclectic twist.
I actually stumbled across this CD for $9.99 at Virgin Records this last Tuesday when I stopped in to pick up the new Madonna CD. I was overjoyed to have spotted it, especially considering that I didn't even know that she had a solo album coming out any time soon. I knew she had some solo tracks featured on "The OC", but for some reason didn't make the connection to a forthcoming album.
This album is everything you have come to love with "Frou Frou", yet even better. The songs are amazing, not a single miss in the bunch. The somewhat more experimental "Hide and Seek" could have felt out of place here, but instead offers an incredible little detour for your ears about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through the disk, without removing you from the flow of the rest of the album.
As usual, Imogen's voice is in top form and her lyrics are equally amazing. "Loose Ends" offers, I think, the perfect and most original break-up line ever written:
So what you say we give it up and walk away?
We're overrated anyway...
we're kissing without kissing
and got it down to a fine art
love's supposed to keep you young and frisky
but we grew up and wide apart
Enough said. If you can't tell by now, I highly, highly recommend this CD, particularly if you at all enjoyed "Details".
As far as the copyright protection is concerned, I have to say that I have an iPod, iTunes 6.01, and had no problem loading it onto my computer and into iTunes/my iPod (via MusicMatch - I kind of have a weird set up from having a large amount of my music loaded via Music Match prior to venturing into iPod/iTunes territory about 2 1/2 years ago). Not sure if the Music Match detour is helping me here, but I would guess that you should be able to load the CD directed onto iTunes without a problem. I have not yet had any problem downloading any copyright protected CDs that I have purchased, which includes pretty much every CD I have bought within the last year or two.
Free Music Review: Speak out
Hit: 5 Stars
Watch out, pop tarts, 'cause Imogen Heap has returned.
This singer made a little-noticed debut seven years ago, with "I Megaphone." In the meantime, she became half of the mega-successful Frou Frou, though it was only intended as a side-project. Now she has returned with her second solo album, an energetic and sparkling piece of pop: "Speak For Yourself."
The album kicks off with the entrancing "Headlock," where music-box pop blossoms out into dark pop splendour. That sets the tone for the rest of the album, following it up with entrancing instrumentation, velvety melodies, and a few hooks to draw you into the songs. There's even a few rock numbers, like the explosive bass of "Daylight Robbery." You go girl.
After seven years off the radar, it's to be expected that Heap's musical style would change. It does, and it's good. She started off as a sort of Tori Amos-style young angry woman, playing guitar and venting her spleen. But in this album, she evokes nobody except her own self.
It may seem that her acid-tinged style has simply softened up, but such is not the case. She's not taunting old bullies and ragging on people who invade her personal space. Instad she's disdainfully telling an evasive lover: "You say too late to start/with your heart in a headlock/You know your better than this!"
But she has not lost her sharper edge. "No, it's not meant to be like this/It's just what I don't need/Why make me feel like this?/It's definitely all your fault!" Her sound isn't that of an Angry Young Woman, ripping into people who have done her wrong. Instead, she sounds more mature -- her heart has been broken, her lovers have been untrue, but she can still get excited about new love.
Her musical style has mellowed as well, even more than her writing. Being in Frou Frou seems to have influenced her solo style, mingling the piano with tinkling melodies and swirling synth. And her velvety voice soars over all of it, able to sink into a worn-out whisper, or rise into a throaty roar.
Heap makes a mark on her second album, with a unique brand of swirling, intricate pop, and her lovely voice. "Speak For Yourself" is energetic, elaborate, and enormous fun.