Listen To This!

All this time on from Imogen Heap’s last solo effort in 2005, following her previous work with Frou Frou, and it feels like an age. A series of massively successful tours, not to mention appearing on the soundtrack of the very trendy The OC, has raised her profile no end.
Opener First Train Home starts things off well, a stand out track, with Heap musing on the feelings of not feeling comfortable and wanting to get away as soon as possible. Wait It Out begins deceptively like previous success song Hide And Seek, but wanders off into an opportunity for her voice to ebb and flow, flourishing on phrases like “wretched hollow”.
Earth presents a percussive vocal with a wheezing beat carrying it along, minimal in its music which mostly comes from her harmonies and a plodding bass part.
There are so many elements to the work of Imogen Heap, especially here on Ellipse, which for all the studio work still maintain the sense of a woman writing songs in her London flat, enjoying life, and engaging with all her worries and joys over a cup of herbal tea as she looks out on the busy city below. Although the album doesn’t consistently stun, amaze or impress, it does manage to maintain a sense of rhythm and consistency, despite her frequently distressed lyrics.

Even so, there are still some pop hooks to be found after some digging; witness the swagger of the chorus which seems to come from absolutely nowhere on Swoon.
There is no doubt she has developed and perfected her sound; it continues to be very electronic and industrial – check out the Bjorkesque 2-1 - but it can become somewhat wearying, inorganic, and just very digital. One song totally stripped back, accompanied with just a piano would go a very long way to breathe some life into this collection of quite rigid, glacial tracks. The Fire comes close to breaking out of this format, but as a sub-two-minute instrumental, it falls a bit short really and ultimately feels generally unnecessary.
Canvas gives a warmer set of sounds, with an aching cello and sleepy drumbeat over soft guitarwork, but this far on in the album, it’s too little too late, even when followed by album closer Half Life. It’s a beautiful piece with all the right elements, which sadly leaves the listener wanting more, but all there is to go back to is the cold digital beats that brought us here in the first place.