Review Summary: Bust out your night cap and turn off the lights, because spinning Imogen Heap’s third album is a sure-fire way to put you to sleep.
Like most people, I was first introduced to Ms. Heap through a gunshot on that terrible O.C. television show (and, probably even more notably, the SNL “Dear Sister” parody of the scene). And although I found her famous “Hide & Seek” song a little overbearing with the vocoder, I found her
Speak For Yourself album to be a surprisingly good electronic rock/pop outing. After following Heap as she updated weekly on the progress of her new album
Ellipse, she revealed that her new album would be a more stripped-down, subdued effort. Was she successful in her change of style, or does it pale in comparison of her popular sophomore album?
As mentioned, Imogen Heap made the conscious decision to make
Ellipse a more sentimental effort, and while
Speak For Yourself prominently featured distorted guitars and pounding drum beats,
Ellipse leans more towards piano, bells, strings and chimes. Not only that, but the biggest difference between the two albums lies in the greater attempt to create a dense musical background this time around: nearly every song on
Ellipse features dozens of tiny little noises and soft layers of sound nestled underneath Heap’s singing, and it creates a terrific, dauntless atmosphere. But, oddly enough, this is the album’s fatal flaw: I find that the ambient background of
Ellipse is the only interesting thing about the album, making a back-to-front listening of the album an incredibly bland, boring experience.
Quite frankly, most every single track found in the middle of
Ellipse will damn near put you to sleep with it’s calm, subdued, free-form nature and
serious overall lack of any catchy parts or vocal hooks. “Earth” is a stripped down effort with ho-hum layers of Heap’s voice, while “Tidal” and “Between Sheets” wander helplessly and are devoid of any hooks. “Little Bird” has absolutely no interesting parts or clear progression at all, and is easily the album’s worst song. Granted, “Swoon”, “2-1” and “Aha!” are decent enough, but each have their own little nuances and hollow approaches that keep them from being truly great: “Aha!” would have been terrific if she kept going back to that catchy chorus, “Swoon” would have been terrific if the drums had more punch, and “2-1” would have benefited from a more focused progression. Throw in the flat-out terrible “Bad Body Double”, and the middle chunk of
Ellipse is truly something to be avoided.
What saves this album from being a complete blunder, however, are the songs found at the very beginning and end of the tracklist. Both “First Train Home” and “Canvas” beautifully mix together the little noises and sounds with an interesting structure and captivating vocal hooks, a concept that seemingly eludes the songs found in the middle of the album. “Wait it Out” is a softer track that doesn’t wander aimlessly, and the closer “Half-Life” is a gut-wrenching ballad that has Ms. Heap captivating the listener during the entire four-minute length. Even though I can’t really stand most of the songs found on
Ellipse, these tracks are the ones I frequently go back to, as they display Imogen Heap’s true talents and they showcase what this album really
should have been.
Save for a handful of great tracks, I have to say that the attempt to make
Ellipse more mellow, soft and calm was a complete failure: most every song found in the middle chunk of this album is hollow, wandering and just plain dull. While I can give acclaim to Heap’s always pleasant voice and her success in creating polished, textured backgrounds, I just can’t forgive her for creating flimsy, uninteresting pop tracks that borderline on pure ambience. I would say to pop this in if you have trouble getting to sleep or if you want to be lulled into a bored trance, but otherwise, stay far, far away, and hope that this talented artist can cook up something a little bit more interesting next time.
