distributedlife

iMOGEN HEAP is a solo artist who sings either rock or electronica. Try not to get hung up on the genres. They’re elastic and never indicative.

Her first album iMEGAPHONE and even though there was more religion than I like in my music I still find myself listening to it. The combination of rock and angst is certainly not new but there is a definite edge to her music that makes it distinct.

Three stand outs from the album are Getting Scared, Rake It In and Blanket. The final song Blanket is an excellent track that doesn’t really suit the rest of the album. It’s too chilled out. Get it and keep it though for when you want to chill it down a few notches. It is a great track.

Imogen’s second album and her electronica outfit Frou Frou are not my style. The beats are softer and don’t quite match her intent. Frou Frou was where I first found out about iMOGEN HEAP. A friend had sent me a track of theirs that he really liked and it wasn’t bad. I listened to a few tracks, watched a few videos on YouTube but that was all. I have an electronic background and prefer my electronica to be a bit more serious. Frou Frou was just a bit too pop. Still I explored further as I always do when exposed to new artists and found the iMEGAPHONE album and I am happy with that.

This same friend a little while later sent me a cover of Let Go (a Frou Frou song) by Kina Grannis. Kina was a different story to Imogen Heap. I haven’t bought any of her albums yet. I’m waiting for the one she is producing at the moment. There are a number of Kina songs that I like. Some are covers and some are her own. I find Kina a boon for music discovery. She covers a lot of music and puts it on YouTube as well as providing an RSS feed. I don’t like every song or every cover but when I find a cover you like it makes me want to explore the original artist. I find that it is often the lyrics that inspire me, only occasionally the delivery.

One of the covers that Kina did was a song called I will follow you into the dark by Death Cab for Cutie. I liked the song and it joined my rotation at the time and when I eventually wore out the songs on the rotation I went and explored Death Cab to see whether I would like them, or if I would just like that one song of theirs sung by someone else.

On YouTube I found the original version of I will follow you into the dark (no link as I can seem to find an official one) and was a little surprised. The original track is quiet and simple but it didn’t make me an instant convert. What happened next was something different altogether. I listened to their next song on Youtube; the eight minute I will possess your heart (also no link). This song was different. The first four and a half minutes is a slowly building instrumental with a video track that features a girl wandering around various parts of the world with an emphasis on showing her in transit.

The second half of the track rocks out a little more, but not too much, and brings in some slightly creepy lyrics about how if the girl spends enough time with the singer she will see that she does love him and the affection won’t be this one way obsession. The video track continues one from the first half with continual travelling.

The video makes one want to travel, to see, to explore, to experience but I don’t think that was the intent of the director. It’s more a wonderful side effect that I experienced. When I see travel videos I get itchy feet.

I will possess your heart didn’t just make it into the rotation, for a few days, it was the only song. I tried my very best to wear the song out. The soft acoustics at the start, eyes closed, no need for fancy video, I travelled in my mind.

So I was a convert and decided I would buy some Death Cab the next time I went music shopping. I couldn’t decide between Plans and Narrow Stairs. Both are very different. Plans has I Will Follow You Into the Dark while Narrow Stairs has I Will Possess Your Heart.

It turns out that I will possess your heart as an audio only track isn’t as strong. The images aren’t there. It’s a great song to drive to but the want for travel wasn’t there. In the end there are a few tracks on Narrow Stairs that saved it for me Cath, Pity and Fear, The Ice is Getting Thinner and Grapevine Fires which has a delightful sequence of lyrics that just makes me feel good whenever I hear it.

We bought some wine and some paper cups

Near your daughter’s school when we picked her up

And drove to a cemetery on a hill, on a hill

We watched the plumes paint the sky grey

And she laughed and danced through the field of graves

And there I knew it would be alright.

Plans was a different story. While there is only one more song on the album I like, over Narrow Stairs, it flows a lot better and the weaker songs aren’t as noticeable. I like to start the album at track three with Summer Skin, Different Names for the Same Thing and I will follow you into the dark. As the name suggests Summer Skin sets the tone for an afternoon in the sun with little to do. The tone follows through to I will follow you into the dark. While it is a dour tune at this point I can’t help but belt it out.

Somewhat in the vein of I will posses your heart is brothers on a hotel bed. It has this beautiful intro that provides a sense of locomotion. You close your eyes as the wind hits your hair. The Cadillac you are in has its roof down moves into the distance as the crane shot pulls up showing the road reaching for the horizon.

In the end it’s a sad song about the distance that forms between a couple in a relationship. How the needs of then don’t match the needs of now. How growth isn’t always in the same direction.