Album Review

Imogean Heap – Ellipse

• 2nd Sep 2009

Four years since releasing her smash-hit album ‘Speak For Yourself’, Imogen Heap is back with a bang on her latest record, ‘Ellipse’, possibly her best work yet. With breakout singles like ‘Goodnight and Go’ and the infamous ‘Hide And Seek’ from her previous release, ‘iMegaphone’, Heap had a lot to live up to but has more than delivered with the new record.

Ellipse was released on August 24 on Heap’s own Megaphonic Records, quickly rising within the UK Top 40. The album has received positive reviews across the board, gaining top five spots in alternative and rock charts and the top spot in the electronic chart.

Taking four years to be made, Heap took her time on this release, taking a writing holiday as far abroad as Maui, Hawaii and contrastingly shacking up in her old childhood home in Essex. The home, which her parents put on the market two years ago was quickly snatched up by Heap, into which she installed her own recording studio. The old ’round house’ served as inspiration, a place where she wrote many of the album tracks.

An interesting quality of the quirky singer/songwriter is that she remains constant in her closeness with her fans, no matter how hyped or famous she becomes. During production Heap kept fans well informed of the progress of the long-awaited record through her Twitter page and with fourty Youtube vlogs.

In her vlogs Heap teased and enticed fans by offering snippets of forthcoming tracks along with in-depth information about her thoughts and frame of mind whilst writing. In one of the final videos Heap discusses the track running order of Ellipse. “[the album had] only one order. ‘First Train’ had to be first, ‘Half Life’ the end and ‘Between Sheets’ as a snack in the middle”.

She describes ‘Between Sheets’ as a moment of calm in the centre of the record, “which works really well, full of strange sounds” including a bonfire crackling, recorded in Maui.

Other stand-out tracks include the single ‘First Train Home’ and ‘2-1’, with final track ‘Half Life’ being the highlight of the record, a piano ballad which Heap declares she allows herself one per album. All in all she delivers her usual heavily-produced mix of soft vocal, unique sounds, electronic beats and pared down piano to offer an outstanding and eclectic third album.