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Imogen Heap has been creating, cultivating a special project since 2011, all the while traveling to places like India, Bhutan, and even China, to bring to her fans a melting pot of ambient soundscapes, combined with everyday sounds and situations in which humans communicate with each other.
Sparks has been in the works for quite some time now, but the album, as a whole, is coherent and flows perfectly in sequence when listening to it from beginning to end. Heap has always been one to take her time with things she’s working on to make sure to perfect them; the wait her fans have endured for this work has absolutely paid off.
The starter of the album, ‘You Know Where to Find Me’ is by far my favorite song. I would consider this track poetic; the lyrics are honestly divine. The (as always) crisp and perfect vocal harmonizing, along with the beautiful piano riffs, audibly puts me into a trance when the breakdown begins with the lyrics, ‘Don’t mistake my charity for what it is, a deep need to be needed: necessary. Don’t mistake my open arms for what they are, they can turn on you, so show me the money, show me the money.’
What a perfect beginning to an album… If anyone has never heard anything by Imogen Heap, I would definitely recommend listening to the above-mentioned song and the second track, ‘Entanglement’ first. This album truly transports the listener to what feels like, other worlds. When I listen to ‘Entaglement’, I get a different feeling than when watching the music video.
But, the intergalactic confusion I have comes to complete understanding after seeing Heap’s own vision of the song in the video. ‘Fearless heart, I’m gonna take care of you, whether spark or spiral, I’ll pull the strength of suns. It’s home where you hold me, so show me no mercy. On islands of cotton, taboos get forgotten. Our body entanglement wants you all over me.’
The next track I can’t stop thinking of is ‘The Beast’. Singing of a couple in a tumultuous fight, Heap seems to even louden her voice in the second chorus when she says, ‘One by one, skin hardens, we’re becoming the beast. The sheer power in the heat of hate brings our army of two to its knees.’ I cannot wait for the video representation of the song to understand it more. She has never disappointed me yet!
The last two tracks are utterly gorgeous as well–the whole album, it’s just superb.
Listen to Imogen Heap’s Sparks on iTunes here.
