Ellipse
For a work so heavily reliant upon synthesizers and other unnatural tones, *Ellipse* sounds surprisingly organic. This is mostly thanks to Imogen Heap’s delicately emotive voice, which she loops and processes into various forms ranging from the scat singing of “Earth” to the bubbly bounce of “Swoon” to the ethereal atmospherics of “Between Sheets” and “Half Life.” Her interesting song structures and the multiple layers of odd electronica give her tunes their rich textures, especially on such standouts as “First Train Home,” “Aha,” and “Canvas.” Not all of the songs on the album are so sonically dense; Heap also offers the relatively minimalist “2-1,” with its slow build and pleasant use of strings, as well as the spare piano instrumental “The Fire.” *Ellipse* is the third release from the former Frou Frou member and it’s a charming and intriguing patchwork of sounds. (The deluxe version includes instrumental versions of each song.)
Imogen Heap’s third full-length record comes more than four years after the release of her breakthrough album, Speak For Yourself, and the English singer/multi-instrumentalist seems to have spent most of that time cramming every conceivable production gimmick and vocal effect into Ellipse. The result is a muddled…
Whilst <b>‘Ellipse’</b> seems to lack a <b>‘Hide and Seek’</b>-like cult song (for which <b>Heap</b> received a Grammy nomination), it is still a superb album which we’re sure will see us through the coming winter months quite sufficiently.
It took seven years for Imogen Heap to follow her debut album I Megaphone with her breakthrough Speak for Yourself (during which time Heap was in Frou Frou with Guy Sigsworth), so the four-year gap between it and its follow-up, Ellipse, feels relatively short.
After many false starts and failed release dates, Imogen Heap's third solo album, Ellipse, is finally here.
<p>Ellipse is questing and musically inventive, using electronics as its foundation, says <strong>Caroline Sullivan</strong></p>
Imogen Heap - Ellipse review: A welcome and impressive addition to her back catalogue, it's just a shame that it doesn't feel like very much more.