"First Train Home" is a song by British singer/songwriter

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 ...

, and the only single off her third solo album '' Ellipse''.

Background

Imogen Heap revealed a story behind the creation of the song in a few interviews. She claimed:

"I was trying to project manage my studio, and the house and moving in never having done anything like that before is EXTREMELY stressful. ..I was so stressed out. So my friend rang me up and said “I never see you anymore, why don’t you come down, you’re not making the record yet – come down”. So I went down to Brighton and all the way on the train I was making phone calls, and I wanted to just be back home working on it. ..So we went out this festival – it was good – but being around music made me even more jittery like I should be doing more and getting home. I didn’t really have a good night really. I was trying so hard to be into the night and they were all nice people and everything but I just wasn’t into it, but I just couldn’t escape and I couldn’t get home and it was too late and lived three hours away. So I was stuck ..Literally, you just want to scream and slap everyone around (not really slapping everyone around - joking), but you know you just don’t want to be there. Panic attack set in. Cold sweats. And I just wanted to get on the first train home basically. I did eventually – got the first train home, stayed up all night and wrote the song on the piano at home really quickly. What’s lovely about it is that I recorded the song in the studio which is directly underneath the dining room where the piano is. And then yesterday ays very excitedly I filmed the video for it which is where I wrote the song!"

Premiere

The song premiered on Santa Monica's KCRW radio station on 10 July at 10:30 PDT, accompanying a ten-minute interview with Heap. Within hours the song was uploaded onto multiple websites.

Release

"First Train Home" was released through iTunes US and iTunes Canada on 14 July, with the option to pre-order the full album Ellipse or its deluxe version. The song was released on other iTunes internationally on 15 July, also giving the option to pre-order Ellipse or its deluxe version. The song was also released onto Amazon.com on 14 July and Amazon.co.uk on 15 July.

Music video

There are two versions of the video for ''First Train Home''.

First version

The first one was premiered on 17 August and directed by Es Devlin. The video shows Imogen trapped in a

zoetrope A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...

running through various hallways, through people holding drinks and speaking, some of them almost transparent. The video features a change of different camera angles and perspectives. The video shoot took place on 29 and 30 June.

Second version

As Imogen was not happy with the result she decided to direct herself an alternative video for the song. The shoot took place on 15 August at the artist's house. The video shows Imogen surrounded by many party-goers in a fancy dress.

Live performances

Imogen Heap performed the song for the very first time live on the

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production c ...

. The episode was taped on 24 August and aired 28 August. She also played the track live on

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization th ...

's show Soundcheck along with another " Ellipse" song, "Half Life" on 25 August.

Charts

The song debuted straight at number one on the P*Chart on 30 August, knocking off

The Black Eyed Peas Black Eyed Peas (also known as The Black Eyed Peas) is an American musical group consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo. The group's line-up during the height of their popularity in the 2000s featured Fergie, who replaced Kim H ...

's "

I Gotta Feeling "I Gotta Feeling" is a song recorded by American group the Black Eyed Peas for their fifth studio album ''The E.N.D.'' (2009). It was written by the group members with the song's producers David Guetta and Frédéric Riesterer. The song was rel ...

" from the pole position after six consecutive weeks of reign and remaining atop for another week.

Track listing

References

{{authority control Imogen Heap songs 2009 singles Songs written by Imogen Heap 2009 songs Song recordings produced by Imogen Heap