Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself

Don't you love reviews that begin with disclaimers? Here are two for your enjoyment:
1. I didn't pay for this CD. Hold on there, RIAA, don't sue my ass for downloading... I found a promo copy in the reject box at KTCU.
2. I have a fetish for bubbling, gurgling electronic sounds in my music.

With those two items out of the way, I'll say I have enjoyed this CD for the past several months. Imogen has an interesting voice, and the CD has fun little details sprinkled all the way through. Repeated listens continue to reveal little nuances that I've missed in the past.

Imogen's music reminds me of Venus Hum. Yeah, I'm being journalistically lazy here, but I really don't know who came first -- I just know I heard Venus Hum prior to hearing Imogen Heap. I'll just say that they both owe a bit of a debt to Depeche Mode and Bjork, and leave things at that, K?

So while I really enjoy this CD quite a bit, I have two problems with it, and both of them are on the minor side of the problem fence, but they're still problems. The first is that so many of the songs sound like someone else. Yeah, there are songs such as "Goodnight and Go" and "Hide and Seek" that are undeniably Imogen. But there are other songs where my brain just starts saying "I've heard that before" and drives me nuts until I think of who Imogen sounds like at a given moment. A prime example of this is "I Am In Love With You," where the background and vocal pacing sound remarkably similar to the verse structure of Nine Inch Nail's "Closer." Yeah, she doesn't go near the patented Trent Reznor scream, but listen to the crunchy synth sound burbling underneath and sing "You let me violate you" across the top of it, and you'll hear exactly what I'm talking about...

The second problem I have is with the song order, which is obviously easily fixed in my iPod playlist, but 1. I'm too lazy to do that and 2. That ain't my job. The song order problem is mainly because the most amazing song on the CD is in the fifth spot. "Hide and Seek" is Imogen's voice filtered through vocal processors for a stunning A Cappella style track. This song has beautiful tension and release, and I love the way she uses really thick chords in parts and then pulls it back. We hit a bit of a groove in the middle of the song, and then she pulls it back. The song ends in a fragile bit that sounds like someone running away. The whole song does a great job of illustrating the give and take of a relationship. Hands down, "Hide and Seek" is the most majestic song on the CD, and while "Clear the Area" is a fun and funky song, it has the unenviable task of following it in the track order. It's the conundrum that mixtape makers everywhere face -- do I put the best song last to leave a glow when they finish the tape, or do I put it in the middle in case they don't make it through the whole thing? Imogen or her producer should have had more confidence in the other songs to believe that they would propel the listener to the end, and put "Hide and Seek" at the end of the CD.

Fun CD, good poppiness over electronic sounds... I'm looking forward to hearing more of Imogen's music.