Imogen Heap Speak for Yourself is 10

If I recall correctly, I first heard Imogen Heap's voice on the Frou Frou tune "Let Go" on the Garden State soundtrack. Her voice is magical. Then I heard her solo work. Her second solo album Speak For Yourself came out 10 years ago yesterday.

This album was groundbreaking in a number of ways. It was a pretty big hit, selling over four hundred thousand copies and going gold in Canada. Several songs were featured in TV and movie soundtracks. But at it's core, it's an artistic album. In some ways, the songs are accessible. In others, this is the type of album that could be relegated to cult status. The quirky songwriting, with vocal effects and orchestral flourishes mixed with danceable beats and pop hooks could have gone either way, in my mind. I love the music and am glad it had such wide-reaching cultural acceptance. I also think it paved the way for artists we've seen achieve success since then, from established artists like Kimbra to up-and-coming artists like Lowell.

Give some tunes a listen, whether Imogen is new to you or an established favourite.

"Headlock"

"Goodnight and Go"

"Loose Ends"

"Hide and Seek"

"Daylight Robbery"

"Just for Now"

Pic from here.

Imogen Heap, Radiohead, The Junction, Built to Spill and Other Cool Stuff!

Spinner has the premiere of Imogen Heap's video for the track "First Train Home" from her new album Ellipse. I've really enjoyed Imogen's earlier albums and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with Ellipse when it comes out August 25th.

Stereogum's got a pack of recent news:

• There's a new song out from Do Make Say Think. It's 10 minutes long and sounds cool to me. I'll have to check out more from this band. They're playing tomorrow night at the Polish Combatants Hall. Other tour dates are in the article.
• Built to Spill has a new album coming out. It's called There is no Enemy and it's coming out in October. I'm heading to the show on October 7th at Lee's Palace. It's not listed among the tour dates on Stereogum, but it is listed on the band's site.
• Radiohead have a new song out, but the rumours are still unconfirmed as to whether there's a new EP called Wall of Ice on its way. The torrent is spinning.

The New Rockstar Philosophy has a funny article about the recent trend of the major labels and iTunes trying to get music fans interested in buying albums again. I still prefer to buy albums over singles, but maybe that has more to do with the fact that I don't buy a lot of Top 40 music.

I saw an article on Dead Sexy about a band called The Vicious Guns. I like the songs on their myspace and will be watching for a release. I couldn't find anything on emusic or iTunes.

The New Music, former television show and current blog, posts some new music in the form of First Spins. However, they don't seem to keep them up for long. A couple that I wanted to check back later to give a listen are for Sean Bones and The Junction. Both are available on emusic. I like 'em.