Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself
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Free Music Notes for Speak for Yourself
Free Music Review: Highly Anticipated, and WELL WORTH the wait!
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought this album the day it came out in the U.S.
I have been a fan of Imogen since I heard her in Frou Frou. I heard the smooth melodies and I researched that sound. I found out that she had her own music, and I looked into that. I have I Megaphone, which was a good album, but I think "Speak for Yourself" shows how much she has matured and how much she has learned about audio engineering.
How much more would you ever want in an album? She wrote, recorded, produced, and mixed everything HERSELF! The only thing she got professionally done was the mastering of it. If you can engineer an album on your own, you have serious talent in the first place. But if you can come up with brilliant work to be displayed in that album you engineered yourself, you're a musical master!
Imogen has a very distinct voice, which she uses to her benefit. I don't like other vocalists who try to sound like someone else - she sounds like herself, and that's the best thing ever.
Her musicianship is wonderful. There is never a dull moment with Imogen. When I listen to her songs, I feel like she put so much care and passion into every little note. It makes me appreciate it so much more, rather than knowing some huge record company told her how to sing or how to lay down her tracks.
As for "star" tracks, every track on this album is as captivating as the next one. There are a few ones that stand out to me, but there is not a song on this album that I find less than wonderful than the other. I also feel strongly about looking at the album as an entire work, rather than song by song.
If you like to be happy and you want to feel good inside, you should get this album. You will not regret it, unless you listen to sucky music.
Free Music Review: A Welcome Burst of Musical Inspiration
Hit: 5 Stars
Notoriously critical when it comes to the quality of songwriting found on today's CDs, I was nearly overwhelmed by the powerful inspiration behind the songs on this CD. The production is meticulous; the sounds are varied, propelling the listener on a rollercoaster from high-energy peaks to calm ethereal valleys; Imogen's voice is alluring in its breathless flights upwards; and the tunes are addictively creative.
My favorite track is "Have You Got It In You?" If I had to make a musical video of one song from this CD, this would be the track, with its impassioned vocals and one of the most powerfully yet beautifully orchestrated endings I have ever heard.
"Say Goodnight and Go" is a song that gets better and more energized with every minute and, like "Have You Got It In You", hits a climactic high near the end that is pure bliss. If you have a pair of speakers you want to put through their paces, this song will make them come alive.
"Hide and Seek" has been reviewed for its thrilling harmonized effects, but what makes the song work for me is the melodic brilliance of the piece itself. Imogen could do this same tune on an acoustic guitar or a piano, and it would work the same magic.
It's been quite a while since I was motivated enough to review anything new, but SPEAK FOR YOURSELF has won me over completely. I refuse to compare this CD to anything Imogen might have done previously. The fact is that she spent two years putting her heart and soul into the making of this album, and, in my opinion at least, she has reached spectacular heights of inspiration. Most highly recommended.
Free Music Review: The Pleasures of Regret
Hit: 5 Stars
This album may not appeal to people who have never loved and lost, but for the rest of us, it pushes buttons on both sides of the regret equation.
On most albums, I may love one song, and like 2 or 3 others. And in this age of iPods, we only need to download "the good ones". (Caution: Other reviews suggest that if you want to copy the copy-protected CD to your iPod, you need to buy the songs from iTunes).
I downloaded every song on this album to my iPod but one. I don't know how to give higher praise to an album. I can think of no other album in my collection where I have done that. I may like other great songs equally or better than some of the songs on this album, but I've never downloaded such a high percentage of songs from one album to my iPod.
Why?
Imogen rips my heart out. In a good way. Like Avril asks for "Somebody please rip my heart out." You'd think that after so many years of popular music, all the heartache themes and voices in our heads would have been mined. Imogen touches them in ways I have never experienced before, with lyrics pulled out of our collective brains. Elephants in the middle of the room that few have talked about with such exposed candor and such spot-on familiarity and musical/emotional representation. Yet she rarely is self-pitying, a very tough balance to find.
I only write this review after having listened to the songs at least 20 times each. So this isn't a crush or lust with a new album. This is something more permanent, durable, and haunting.
Please comment, express feedback, or suggest related music.
Free Music Review: Terrific, joyful and uplifting
Hit: 5 Stars
I had not heard of this young talent until a friend of mine sent me a You Tube link to a live performance of one her songs. I went to the link and heard her do "Just for now" before a live audience (there are several; the one I heard was "live at Studio 11 103.1FM" . I am a trained musician with a fine ear for what I consider to be greatness. Within 30 seconds of this tune I was simply lifted up into some higher vibration within my self and I just was overwhelmed with tingles of joy. It is rare that I come across someone who makes such effective and deliberate use of her God given gifts. It is such with Imogen Heap. After a tough childhood, she emerged herself in musical education with a special emphasis on technology. This is a young lady with a gift both vocal and on several levels of music. I have yet to pay much attention to her lyrics but I will eventually sit down and get my reading glasses on to see what she has to say. It's that voice and what she knows what to do with it that just grabbed me. Listening to "just for now" even as I write this reminds me of the joyous sounds of African singers such as Miriam Makemba and others. I am reminded of the spontaneous and effusive solo piano work of Keith Jarrett.
Heap is a talent to be reckoned with and I can only expect more wonderful sounds to come. The album I am reviewing here is full of delights on almost every single track. I have listened to it at least 4 times now and it continues to grow in my estimation with each play. What a tremendous joy it is to listen to so much light and harmony. Richly rewarding.
Free Music Review: Heap and Seek
Hit: 5 Stars
While you may know Imogen Heap for her contributions in Frou Frou, "Speak for yourself" is the stunning follow-up to her first solo album "I Megaphone". This new album moves away from both her previous projects. "I Megaphone" is darkly electronic and Frou Frou's "Details" is a pop-orientated trip-hop album. In contrast, "Speak for Yourself" is soft, sophisticated, and edged with tenderness yet it maintains the electronic trip-hop vocalised essence that fans of Heap will have come to expect. A vital difference with "Speak for Yourself" is that Heap's classical training shines through more than ever, from piano melodies and classic synths and strings to the exquisite composition of every track. And layered over all this, and entwined into the music, is Imogen Heap's breathy silky voice.
My absolute favourite track is 'Hide and Seek' which was used in The OC's season finale recently. It is a slow harmonised vocal track that communicates a sense of united sorrow and hope simultaneously. It's absolutely beautiful and this one track is enough reason to buy the album!!
Other favourites are 'Clear the Area' in which classical piano leads into an ocean of mellow beats, 'Just for Now' with its layers of luscious vocals, and 'Closing in' which combines moody trip-hop beats with innocent vocals.
All in all, this is a brilliant eclectic album that manages to hold together the funky grooves of 'I am in love with you' and a ballad like 'The Moment I said it'. There isn't a bad track.
Comparisons: Jem, Frou Frou, Goldfrapp, Zero 7 in parts and elements of Archive.