I’m guessing people under 30 will read the title of this album and think \u201cWait, Apple came out with a new and evidently very large iPhone and didn\u2019t announce it?\u201d Calm yourself. iMegaphone <\/i>is Imogen Heap\u2019s debut album, one that didn\u2019t get the mainstream exposure it should have in the late 1990s. However, it attracted a number of indie fans and followers, who remain fans to this day of both the British artist\u2019s solo outings and her brief work with Frou Frou.<\/p>\n
Heap, also a Grammy-winning producer (for Taylor Swift\u2019s 1989<\/i>), remains a talented and searching artist who engages with her fans, contributes to soundtracks when asked, and stays on the forefront of musical technology. As her musical spirit has expanded, the \u201890s trappings of this album have been left behind, leaving this as a dated but still occasionally compelling debut effort. <\/p>\n
The songs are mostly piano-based but then are dressed up with grungy guitars and nascent electronica beats, both of which were all the rage in the mid-90s; electronic music has long been a passion for Heap, and subsequent albums explored this while diminishing the alt-rock. The Grammys, ever-relevant and on the ball, nominated Heap for Best New Artist in 2006 after her second <\/i>solo album, forgetting apparently that iMegaphone <\/i>ever existed and not having access to Google at the time, I suppose.<\/p>\n
If all you know of Heap is her soundtrack material, \u201cHide And Seek,\u201d and her other electronic work, then this album will come as kind of a surprise. But dated as it may be the disc still retains a power and grace. The downfall \u2013 not crippling, but close \u2013 is how similar the vocals and guitars sound to Alanis Morissette, with perhaps some Liz Phair and Sarah McLachlan (circa Fumbling <\/i>and Surfacing<\/i>) influence as well. It was a popular sound in 1998, but because this sound was everywhere, iMegaphone <\/i>sounds immediately tied to its era. There are certain spots that sound like Jagged Little Pill <\/i>leftovers. Moreover, because Heap doesn\u2019t stand out from the pack on the debut, the label felt she was not commercially viable and dropped her (even after four singles) shortly after the album\u2019s release.<\/p>\n
In some ways, this may have been a blessing, as it allowed Heap to find her unique voice and grow, but elements of that voice are already here. \u201cAngry Angel,\u201d despite its Alanis-isms, is a lost alt-rock classic that you would do well to rediscover, all ferocious guitars and offhand attitude. On the other end, \u201cGetting Scared\u201d and \u201cSweet Religion\u201d use electronica textures, a sprinkling of piano, and deliberate tempos to work their way under one\u2019s skin.<\/p>\n
Yet although individual moments like this are minor pleasures, there\u2019s nothing jaw-dropping or standout, although there\u2019s also nothing actively awful (although \u201cRake It In\u201d tries hard to be, with its awkward phrasing, carnival atmosphere and godawful instrumental break). It\u2019s not that the other songs are dull necessarily, but rather that they have been done by others a little better and lack the sort of memorable melodies or vocal tics they need to work. It seems as if Heap tried to channel her classical music training and love of electronica into what was commercially acceptable at the time, instead of what she really wanted to do, which is why iMegaphone <\/i>doesn\u2019t cohere as it should.<\/p>\n
Still, if you\u2019re fan of this era (think the above artists plus early PJ Harvey), you may want to give this a quick spin and see what grabs you. Heap would go on to do better things, leaving this album alone in her discography as a curious but flawed first step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10126],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-45219","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-imogen-heap","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45219"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45219"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}