CityLife

Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap
Academy
February 7, 2010

WE'RE catching up with our own quirky songstress, Imogen Heap, following what would be an interesting week in anyone's book.

Last week Imogen beat off competition from such behind-the-scenes studio-big-deals as Ethan Johns, Jon Brion and Al Schmitt to pick up the Grammy for best engineered album for her recently released third solo long player, Ellipse - and it’s not hard to hear why, based on the masses of subtle instrumentation and lush vocal arrangements.

But will she be able to recreate such elaborate production and complex orchestration on the Academy's stage?

For the most part she manages it - and with human backing this time around, as well as her usual boxes of tricks, songs old and new are brought to life with a small arsenal of quirky instruments, including a saw, a birdcage-looking thing, and several flexible plastic tubes swung overhead.

Relaxed

Old favourites such as Headlock, The Walk and Just For Now cause the biggest crowd reaction, but newbies First Train Home, Bad Body Double and Half Life are greeted with similar giddy enthusiasm by the vocal die-hards that applaud her every utterance.

Of course, considering Imogen’s relaxed, jokey demeanor, charmingly befuddled stage manner (best exemplified by her handling of early technical glitches that delay proceedings) and accessible nature (tonight’s cello player was found following an urgent plea on her Twitter page) it’s easy to see why she has already amassed such a loyal legion of fans on both sides of the Atlantic.

The encore brings us her breakthrough solo vocoder-backed hit Hide And Seek, before closing with a communal sing-through of The Moment I Said It, that has the crowd enraptured.

Mainstream success is almost definitely assured with performances like this.