Sparks

Heap is singular among pop singers for the diversity of skills she brings to each project. Yes, she writes and sings songs, and plays piano too. But unlike most of her musical peers, she also has the studio skills to win a "Best Engineer" Grammy award for her 2009 album. She's a singer-songwriter not just in the obvious and literal sense that she writes the songs that she sings, but also in the sense of the genre of confessional singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Sarah McLachlan, and Alanis Morissette, whose songs describe their own life experiences in eloquent and vulnerable detail. Heap's first solo album "I Megaphone" (as often noted, an anagram of her name) chronicles her high school and early adult life, with school crushes, religious crises, and challenging of authorities. The second album, "Speak For Yourself," found her producing her own work about the life and times of a young woman immersed in London's city culture. Success brought her the means to return to and renovate her childhood home in the country, a process covered in her third album, "Ellipse," named after the shape of that house and containing sound samples recorded in its environs. What would be next?The answer would be five years in coming. The intensive do-it-yourself ethos of "Speak for Yourself" and "Ellipse" had been artistically satisfying but personally draining, and Heap has resolved to live her life, not just embalm it in music. One of the chief dangers facing singer-songwriters is that the process of creating the music and touring to support it can crowd out the life that makes the music so compelling, and the vampiric record label system has sucked many an artist dry, producing successively less compelling works as their sphere of experience shrivels to tour buses, hotel rooms, and interviews with media outlets. Heap has abandoned that rat race again. The initial intent to record a song every three months, producing twelve tracks over three years, has instead stretched to almost exactly five years.The result is worth the wait, as in that period Heap has lived a life worth writing about, and produced an album whose theme must be "collaboration in community." She's accepted a commission to write a song in a day while living on a boat in the Thames River and performing it on a dozen pianos in Edinburgh ("You Know Where to Find Me"). She spent six weeks taking the pulse of urban China (the driving "Xizi She Knows" and "Cycle Song"). She's collaborated with Indian composers Vishal-Shekhar ("Minds Without Fear"), DJ Deadmau5 ("Telemiscommunications"), and rapper B.o.B ("The Beast"). She's arranged sound samples gathered from her enthusiastic fan base ("Lifeline"). She's hiked the Himalayas of Bhutan ("Climbing to Sakteng"). She's partnered with Intel to pilot an app that creates music from the rhythms of jogging ("Run-Time") and developed gloves that sculpt music through gestures ("Me the Machine"). She's fallen in love and made a baby ("Entanglement" and "Propeller Seeds"). She's invested time and effort in her own rural neighborhood's garden (the spoken word piece "Neglected Spaces"). The album's signature track, "The Listening Chair," is her most explicitly autobiographical work yet, taking five minutes to tell a tale of thirty-five years of life in a series of seven year chunks, reminiscent of the British documentary "Up Series."The music, uniformly excellent, has the stylistic variety you'd expect from the range of topics which she surveys. Asian music, acapella, trance, electronica, and gorgeous piano pop all get their day in the sun. "You Know Where to Find Me," "Minds Without Fear," and "The Beast" are the most similar to traditional radio pop songs, but it's not hard to imagine most of these tracks finding a home in scores for film or television, and indeed some were composed exactly for that. This is an album that rewards undistracted, repeat listening to unpack its sonic detail and lyrical transparency, a look into the world of one of today's most restless music/tech talents.The deluxe edition of the album comes with a second disc of instrumental versions of the songs, well worth a few extra bucks. Heap also has assembled a box set version with 24 bit versions of the tracks, various mixes, a double vinyl album, a beautiful coffee table "making of the album" book, music videos and "making of the song and video" videos for every track, and other goodies. The box set is pricey but is heirloom quality and should be seriously considered by hardcore fans. (This review was based on a purchase of that set.)

Imogen's prior two albums are absolutely desert island-worthy. They connect with me on so many levels of creativity: the melodies are unique and catchy, the lyrics are quirky (and often deeply moving,) and the quality of the production never fails to blow me away in it's complexity. This album lacks nearly all of those qualities (it pains me to write these words as they conflict with my eternal love for those fantastic masterpieces.) I think the most important thing missing is Imogen's unique sense of wit; this album feels far too serious and lacks a certain sense of passion. I eagerly anticipate Imogen's next effort... as she is so inspiring, I'm sure I'll not be disappointed.

This is a funny story... I was buying a bunch of Sparks (the band) vinyl albums and I ended up mistakenly buying this Imogen Heap album titled "Sparks". What a lovely mistake! What a wonderful surprise. It is a beautiful recording and provides a deep and wonderful listening experience sonically and lyrically. The vinyl was clean and the sound was rich with nicely separated channels. Bass response, at least on my system, was tight and balanced. The tracks on both sides have a very ethereal feeling and you feel like all you want is for the record to continue, just like a great film.

Imogen Heap is pretty incredible. I purchased both the vinyl and CD of this album to compare for my own ears instead of taking everyone's word on whether CDs or vinyl sound better. I feel that Immi has enough small nuances in her music to make this a good test. After reviewing both, I can say for sure that they both sound incredible, but the levels on the CD seem a little more 'intrusive' than on the vinyl. That's a weird word to use, but they all seem to be near the same level while the vinyl seems to be a truer representation of Heap's mix.Either way, I love them both and can't wait--already--for the next one!

I really liked Imogen's last 3 albums. I decided not to follow her long journey in the production of this album, preferring to wait for the final product. Oh dear. I find it to be overly-intricate, over-produced with, at times random lyrics and random sounds. I just can't connect with this album which I think is more likely to lose her fans than gain them. Maybe it is too self-indulgent for me or maybe my musical tastes have changed.Whilst waiting for this album I explored other artists and different genres. I discovered the wonderful Patty Griffin. Numerous great yet simple songs, sung with more emotion and simpler production for her distinctive voice.I hope Imogen can return to form with her next album, give more importance to the songs and less to the production.

I am so glad that someone has finally put together the perfect album. I agree all the enthusiastic reviews, but I don't wish to extract tracks for critique. It seems to me a continuum; it needs to be played through from beginning to end. I like the other albums but this one is very special. We have waited a long time for it. Very much worth the wait.One small carp, - not about the music but the package . As one of Imogen's older fans I would have preferred the accompanying leaflet to be in rather bigger print. Oh well, . . this means I will have to listen to the album over and over to get the lyrics. Some burden!!

I am a fan of all of Heap's previous work and was very excited to finally receive this album. I recognise most artists develop a sound but as a listener it's always enjoyable when they challenge themselves and your expectations of their work; Heap has done this on Sparks. Not as immediately accessible as her previous work, the album - a collection of soundscapes multi-layered and detailed - grows and breathes further life into each successive listen. The collaborations (collected as she travelled) are imaginative, varied and demonstrate her versatility as an artist, producer and engineer. The album is a Spark that will catch and burn for some time to come...

What can i say ?! Imogen is a musical genius (Imogen(ius)), i'm completely crazy of her incredibly beautiful music and all of her records are important and superb ! Thank you Imogen, for all that pleasure you gave us with your so great talent !(Excuse my English, please)

just had to buy this new release as I heard her just once and couldn't get her out of my mind. Played so many times it's better with every listen.

What can I say but class act.

Inventive and carries you along.

Our teenage daughter loved this LP we bought for her birthday. Unfortunately the free download didn't seem to work though.

Exiting news to me - with a touch of Frou Frou she is an artist still nurturing her talent.

excellent

love - great price

Really liked this album. Vocals are wonderful and lyrics do seem to be heavily influenced by her experiences of travelling.

Amazing album, her best to date! But you wouldn't expect anything lees from imogen.

Present for relative who said he was not disappointed.

Such a great album, so many different styles of songs, but they all work. And they all have a really interesting story behind them, worth checking out the videos on YouTube.