Track Listing

1. First train home
2. Wait it out
3. Earth
4. Little bird
5. Swoon
6. Tidal
7. Between sheets
8. 2-1
9. Bad body double
10. Aha!
11. The fire
12. Canvas
13. Half life

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #431 in Music
• Released on: 2009-08-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

CD Description
After the leaps she made on the release of her last breakthrough album Speak For Yourself, British singer-songwriter-producer and two-time Grammy nominee Imogen Heap remained true to her do-it-yourself ethos, building her own studio in the old family home in Essex. Picking up where she left off, Imogen continues to redress the Artist/Audience relationship with Ellipse by enlisting the help of her huge fanbase to write the biography for the new album via Tweets submitted by her 650,000 (and counting!) followers on Twitter, to contribute artwork designs, and by keeping her fans up-to-date on the recording of the new album over 38 vBlogs, all available on her website. Upfront of the new album, Imogen even invited fans to complete an unfinished track "The Song That Never Was", providing the lyrics, with over 500 fans adding backing music for their own versions.

Customer Reviews

And about time too
It's been four years. Oh yes, it's been worth the wait.

After the wonderful patchy intimacy of 'Speak for Yourself' comes this: 13 exquisitely produced mature pieces of electro-pop.

From the sleeve notes: 'Produced, Engineered, Programmed and everything inbetween by Imogen Heap'. Saying that, she has an impressive array of backing musicians with her, including Nitin Sawhney amongst many others.

Look, it's worth buying the CD - to start with, you're going to get better quality than any download - and the sound quality counts on this album - and secondly, you'll get the lyrics and some striking pics of Imogen Heap in a dark, electric land.

The album opens with the beautiful, rolling 'First Train Home', rippling synth and syncopated lyrics - 'first train home, I've got to get on it, first train home, I've got to get on it': she wants to get on getting on, and the music rolls on.

'Wait It Out' starts strong - yes, it's the end of the affair, but she can just sit it out - but then it collapses into sad and simple intimacy: 'And sit here, Just going to wait it out, And sit here cold, Just going to sweat it out, Wait it out.'

'Earth' - wonderful a cappella, multi-tracked playfulness, not putting up with it anymore: 'Stop this right away, Put that down and clean this mess up, End of conversation, Put your back into it and make it up to me now'.

'Little Bird' almost reminded me of Alison Moyet's 'Only You' but multi-tracked vocals.

'Swoon' sounds like there's a theramin playing in the background, but again Imogen's hilarious, intimate lyrics: 'And this is where I was going to sing your name, Over and over again but I chickened out in the final minute'. Straight into the swelling, rising, falling, driving 'Tidal'. This really is a gorgeous album...

Oh, I can't go through every track, but you've got to listen to 'Between The Sheets', that simple piano, the intimate lyrics.

'Bad Body Double' - Yeah, I've got one of those too. Funky, pizzicato strings, almost Essex accent there.

There really isn't a weak track here. Shifting moods, some dark, most with a sweet self-awareness but overall a really strong, beautifully put-together collection of classic pop.

Definitely worth the wait.

A Woman In Her Element
Imogen Heap would appear to have had to put up with
a lot of unpleasant shenanigans prior to the scheduled
release of her latest labour of love this week.
We must hope that she reaps the rewards that
she clearly deserves for all her hard work.

Always a distinctive singer and composer, her new
project Ellipse is in every way a real delight.
The vision of an artist never less than true to herself.

The estimable Ms Toast from Hull has already done the album
a great service with her lucid review so I will resist the
ungallant urge to produce a further track-by-track disection.

What sets Ms Heap well apart from the pack is her subtle sense
of the importance of melodic and rhythmic structure partnered
with her finely-honed lyrical sensibility.
Listen to the fractured arpeggios accompanying the delicate
harmonies of the magical vocal performance in 'Little Bird'.
As good as any musical reflection on a similar theme since
Joni Mitchell's 'The Hissing Of Summer Lawns' (1975).
They both have the ability to "smell rats in the kitchen" !

The scintillating candour of "Between The Sheets" is the album's
crowning glory. A gift of a song from a woman in love and not
afraid to shout it from the rooftops !
One of the most beautiful compositions I have heard this year.

The thirteen tracks in this collection do not
have one wasted breath within or between them.

Essential.

more of the same
If you liked her last album Speak For Yourself then you will find this album right at home. 13 excellent chill out tracks. If you are a big karaoke fan you can get a delux pack that includes instrumental versions. The downside really is that she hasn't moved her game on that far the sounds are far more polished than before but similar artists like Air seem to challenge their audience with their new albums whilst this really is more of the same.