by Rachel Metz
Editor-in-chief

There’s something funky about a girl who can invent a rockin’ album title from an anagram of her name. Imogen Heap, a British singer and pianist currently on tour in the U.S., manages to do that with her 1998 Almo Records release, iMEGAPHONE.

The tunes on iMEGAPHONE are catchy and varied, kind of like a harsh Tori Amos with a little less whimsy and a lot more force. The album opens with "Getting Scared," a keyboard-laced ballad about a woman finding herself with power over a childhood bully.

Heap’s voice comes across like a black cat stretching razor-sharp claws–sleek and silky-smooth, but threatening and changeable. As Heap meanders through tunes about spirituality, sex and revenge, she passes lilting harmonies imogeniniscent of Fiona Apple, electronic squeaks and wails and piano grooves that prove she can rock with both her brooding vocals and hot hands.

iMEGAPHONE is quite a departure from the presentation Heap is using on her U.S. tour. In concert in November 1998, Heap left behind the studio work and backup vocals that helped complete iMEGAPHONE and instead opted to perform with only a microphone and piano. This setup lent several of her album tracks a cleaner, sometimes more desperate sound. The song "Oh me, oh my," stripped down to its roots when performed live, made Heap’s strong voice sound more childlike and agitated when she wailed lines like:

"God Are you there Are you out there
If so where are you hiding
I’m having trouble finding
you"

Though iMEGAPHONE has a dark tone, Heap makes no apologies or attempts to sweeten the mix. Instead, she concentrates on sweeping her vocals all over the spectrum and using studio engineering to include elements like synth-seduced "classical" riffs and an Eleanor-Rigby-meets-electronica bridge on the song "Whatever."

Some tracks, like "Angry Angel" and "Sweet Religion," would almost qualify as the type of "alternative" piano music Tori Amos has made acceptable on mainstream radio. They incorporate loud, fuzzy guitars and box-breaking drumming . However, Heap jumps around and spaces out different genres of music on iMEGAPHONE so labeling is difficult. Thrashing around to lyrics like, "This is an obsession, a kind of aggression with himself/ It’s the way he’ll always be/ He loves to rebel to go against his ten commandments/ For him, that’s just being free," is abruptly halted by the next track, "Candlelight," with much softer words: "I am alone, surrounded by the colour blue/ Inside a poem, the only words I ever knew."

Tall, skinny and naturally dark-haired, Heap could almost pass for a more talented version of the Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor. A lot of her lyrics are similar to those on Nails’ 1994 release, Pretty Hate Machine. This is especially true in the track "Useless" where she laments, "I am a mirror, with no reflection/ I am a razor, without my blade/ I am the daylight when the moons shines no/ Who will want to make my sandcastle that’s already made." Heap atones for the hopeless lyrics, however, with a piano line and some soft drumming that makes the song sound like she’s creating a musical rainstorm.

Heap knows her stuff. On iMEGAPHONE she has successfully fused a multitude of genres with strong lyrics to create an album that truly showcases her talents as a singer, songwriter, and musician.