Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself

Imogen Heap
Speak for Yourself

Just when I thought Seth was never going to hook up with Alex (this is before she had the lesbian romance with Marissa), she kissed him in an empty, darkened Bait Shop.  The whole event was made even better by the perfectly poppy “Goodnight and Go” by Imogen Heap playing in the background.  The second the episode ended, I found the song and downloaded it. 

I checked out Imogen’s website and found that the song was from a forthcoming album, so I had to settle for her solo back catalog.  Major disappointment.  Instead of girly pop fit for The OC, I found angry Alanis Morissette girl rock fit for the trash can.  I chalked “Goodnight and Go” up as an anomaly.  

That’s when The OC dared me to give her another shot.  As Cal lay in his coffin and the Newportians donned their sexiest funeral wear, Imogen delivered the nothing-but-vocoder ballad “Hide and Seek.”  I found myself scrambling to the computer for the second time.   

The full album, Speak for Yourself, has finally been released and I took a chance on it, knowing it could be awful.  Fortunately, Immi seems to have shed her angry past and focused her energy on creating beautifully sultry girl music.  The album is full of subdued beeps, xylophones, mid-tempo drum machine beats and vocals, creating hypnotizing tracks like “Headlock” and “Loose Ends.”  Speak for Yourself runs out of steam by the end, but not before making me want to rent season 2 of the The OC.   

Great For: TV teen dramas and the 25-year-olds who watch them.