Recorded March 2007–June 2009 | Length 48:43 Release date 24 August 2009 | |
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Released 24 August 2009(see release history) Awards Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Similar Imogen Heap albums, Rock music albums | ||
Imogen heap first train home
Ellipse is the third studio album from Grammy Award-winning British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap. After returning from a round the world writing trip, Heap completed the album at her childhood home in Essex, converting her old playroom in the basement into a studio. The album got its name from the distinctive elliptical shape of the house. The album's title was confirmed by Heap via her Twitter page on 25 April 2009, after being leaked onto the internet on 23 April. On 15 June, Heap confirmed that the album would be released on 24 August 2009 in the United Kingdom on Megaphonic Records and 25 August in the United States/Canada on RCA Victor Records. International release date was also 24 August.
Contents
- Imogen heap first train home
- Imogen heap first train home with lyrics
- Background
- Reception
- Live performances
- Track listing
- Official streaming album
- Credits
- Production
- Songs
- References
Subject matter in the songs includes post break-up malaise ("Wait It Out"), domestic boredom ("Little Bird"), body image issues ("Bad Body Double") and a common Heap theme, unrequited love ("Swoon" and "Half Life").
Imogen heap first train home with lyrics
Background
In July 2009, a promotional copy of the album (designed by Andy Hau) appeared on eBay; Heap in return placed a bid of £10,000,000 to try to reclaim the album, which eBay rejected. As of 8 July, eBay had ended the auction. On 14 July, the first single "First Train Home" was released, and a digital pre-order for the album became available on iTunes in two versions.
The Deluxe version includes instrumental tracks of the entire album. Both Standard and Deluxe editions feature a "Behind the scenes" video when pre-ordered. As the song "The Fire" is already an instrumental, the "instrumental" version on the Deluxe edition's second disc consists of just the crackling fire in the background of the song proper. The solo piano track, without the fire sounds, was included only on the Deluxe CD copy of the album, as a hidden track at the end of "Half Life"; digital copies omit this hidden track.
Reception
Critical response to Ellipse was generally positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 68, based on 12 reviews. It also earned her a further two Grammy Nominations on 2 December for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "The Fire" and Best Engineered Non-Classical Album. On 31 January 2010, it was announced that Heap had won the latter award.
Live performances
In October 2008, Heap travelled to America to perform at Pop!Tech in Camden, Maine. She performed the song 'Wait It Out' live, for the first time ever on 24 October. The performance was recorded and released on Youtube.com the following day.
On 24 August 2009, Heap appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman (although the episode didn't air until the 28th) and performed "First Train Home". On her Twitter page, Imogen admitted that she messed up on the second line of the second verse during the performance.
The following day, on 25 August, Imogen headed to the WNYC Radio Station in New York to play "First Train Home" and "Half Life" on air and give a short interview.
Track listing
On 8 June, Heap confirmed the following as the album's official and final track listing:
All tracks written by Imogen Heap.
Official streaming album
On 17 August 2009 Heap made the entire album Ellipse available for live streaming via her webpage. Since 2012, the album can no longer be streamed via her webpage but is moved to SoundCloud.
Credits
Production
Songs
1First Train Home4:14
2Wait It Out3:58
3Earth3:35