Rating: NNN
By the time ex-Frou Frou fille Imogen Heap’s official U.S. solo debut (she put out a disc in the UK wa-a-a-y back in 98) hit, savvy music supervisors from hot network dramas were already clued in. Heap straddles that not-so-wide chasm between Tori Amos (classical piano training) and Michelle Branch (sudden swerves into blandly inoffensive pop hooks), but livens things up a bit by throwing in peculiar, ominous electronic whirs and pulses and vocoder effects, all of which add a smidgen of edge la Kiss My Arp-era Andrea Parker. If you focus really, really hard on the tracks, you can tease out moments of artfulness and intrigue (the a cappella O.C.-featured Hide And Seek has layers of synthesized vocals that reference Gregorian chants), but the sanded-off production of Speak For Yourself lets it fade into pleasant aural wallpaper more often than not. Nice closing credits music, though.
Imogen Heap hits the El Mocambo tonight (Thursday, January 12).
