The Silver Sun Pickups

I spent the weekend immersed in some really awesome music. Friday I saw a show at the local metal bar, and Saturday I went crazy at the local record store and purchased about 12 albums. I know that is allot of music to splurge on, but in my defense 2 of the 12 were used. I figured Saturday would be a good night to stay in with a bottle of wine and a 12 pack. Me and my girl lit a few candles, poured some wine, and sat on the thinking couch and cranked the stereo. The albums I picked up were all from artists that I had heard of before and in some cases had there previous works already in my collection. I did, however, pick up an album that my girl recommended. The name Imogen Heap really was low on my radar. I had heard the name before from someone who watched the O.C.. and raved about one of her songs featured on the show. Naturally not being an O.C. fan I swept it under the rug and said good day.

I popped in Speak For Yourself and was hooked 35 seconds into the first song. The album starts out with “Headlock”, it’s a bit of electronic pop that starts off with synthesizes vocals and bouncing keyboards. It has a spacey like quality to it, and then drops into an all out Indie dance song, with strong drum beats and swing like quality to it. Something that I could dance to or just groove to while writing. By listening to the first 2 tracks the album could be labeled as just pure electronic Indie pop. And I do agree that it did grab my attention, and starting out it did have a bubblegum quality to it. As the album pressed on it took an emotion and more personal tone. The track, “Hide and Seek”, portrays a deeper side of Imogen Heap that I really found surprising. The song plays out as almost a journal reading from someone who is grabbing to understand personal connection with another human being.

That track follows with “Clean The Air”, and serves to literally start things over again with the listener. It starts with a swirling ambiance and then into clear more strait forward vocals, it’s less emotional and brings the mood back to a happier more understanding state of mind. The album continues with more electronic groove based songs, and moves the pace to a medium waltz. Before the end of the album the track “Just For Now” slows the pace down one more time. I took the song as a light job just before the finish line. It was in the same vein as “Hide And Seek”, with the theme of emotional connection, but with a tone of understanding and content. The album finishes with a less emotional more dance oriented tone. The album, overall, played out like a short story dotted with deep emotional plot points. It could have gotten a bit deeper, but sticks to what it does best, and that’s making Indie electronica. I did like what emotional content it did contain, but it served to grab me and make me pay more attention to the music then what was being said. I have to say it worked because by the end of the album I was dancing around my living room with a glass half full of red wine.