''Speak for Yourself'' is the second solo album by British singer

Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Heap (born 9 December 1977) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music. Heap classically trained in piano, cello and clarinet starting at a ...

, following her collaborative effort with

Guy Sigsworth Guy Sigsworth is an English record producer and songwriter. During his career, he has worked with many artists, including Seal, Björk, Goldie, Madonna, Britney Spears, Kate Havnevik, Imogen Heap, Bebel Gilberto, Mozez, David Sylvian, Alanis M ...

as Frou Frou. The album was released in the United States in 2005. It was written, produced,

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

, and funded by Heap, without the backing of a record label, and features guest appearances from Jeff Beck, who provides a guitar solo on "

Goodnight and Go "Goodnight and Go" is a song by British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap, the second single from her 2005 album '' Speak for Yourself''. The single received a little more push and promotion in the US than "Hide and Seek", and the music video rece ...

", and Heap's ex-boyfriend, Richie Mills, who argues with her on "The Moment I Said It".

Development

Heap recorded ''Speak for Yourself'' between her 26th and 27th birthdays. While recording the album, Heap kept a graph on which she had the keys of songs on the

X axis A Cartesian coordinate system (, ) in a plane is a coordinate system that specifies each point uniquely by a pair of numerical coordinates, which are the signed distances to the point from two fixed perpendicular oriented lines, measured in ...

and the tempos of songs on the Y axis so as to prevent herself from repeating

song structure Song structure is the arrangement of a song, and is a part of the songwriting process. It is typically sectional, which uses repeating forms in songs. Common forms include bar form, 32-bar form, verse–chorus form, ternary form, strophic form, and ...

s. The album was primarily recorded in her flat in

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. "I Am in Love with You" was written by Heap at age 19 while she was on tour with

Rufus Wainwright Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and composer. He has recorded 10 studio albums and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical operas and set ...

, while "Clear the Area" was the first song on the album to be fully written. The song "Daylight Robbery" was written for an advertising agency. The album's cover was created by Heap's boyfriend at the time, who had been editing a photo of her taken by a friend in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, while the title was the first thing that she thought of after seeing it. ''Speak for Yourself'' was released in the United States in 2005, and released in the UK through Imogen Heap's own label, Megaphonic Records, in a

digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case ...

created specifically by Heap, before being licensed to White Rabbit Recordings in 2006 for the UK and international markets. It is licensed to

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

and Sony Legacy in the US, where the first run of 10,000 copies were

copy protected Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, describes measures to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on ...

and encased in the digipak. As of August 2009, it has sold 431,000 copies in the US according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album has also achieved Gold status in Canada. In the United Kingdom the album has sold 39,000 copies. Songs "

Hide and Seek Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a popular children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chose ...

", "Speeding Cars" and "

" have sold 647,000, 223,000 and 159,000 copies in United States. ''Speak for Yourself'' was re-released digitally in deluxe, standard, and

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

versions on 24 December 2012 by Sony BMG.

Critical reception

Accolades

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's Ned Wharton named ''Speak for Yourself'' one of the best albums of 2005. Also for NPR, American radio presenter

Nic Harcourt Nic Harcourt (born September 23, 1957) is an English-born American radio and television presenter, producer, and journalist best known as the former Music Director and on-air presenter for the Santa Monica, California-based radio station KCRW. Har ...

named "Have You Got It in You?" one of the best songs of 2005.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. * Imogen Heapvocals, production, mixing, engineering, programming * Richie Millsbackground vocals (1, 12), drums (34, 7, 11) * Mich Gerberbass (1, 3) * Jeff Beckguitar (2)

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speak For Yourself 2005 albums Imogen Heap albums Albums produced by Imogen Heap