“First Train Home” depicts Imogen at a party, where she’s panicking and wants more than anything to leave and catch the first train back home. It is the sole single from her third studio album Ellipse.
The song remains her highest-charting in the US, placing at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 Bubbling...
[Intro]
Got to get on it
Got to get on it
Got to get on it
[Verse 1]
Bodies disengage, our mouths are fleshing over
As hiss and echo gain, irises retreat into ovals of white
[Pre-Chorus 1]
The urge to feel your face
In blood, rushing to paint my hand print
And Frisbee one by one, your vinyl on laminate
I'm desperate for some kind of contact
[Chorus 1]
First train home, I've got to get on it
First train home, I've got to get on it
First train home, I've got to get on it
Got to catch, to catch, catch, catch, catch
The first train home, I've got to get on it
First train home, I've got to get on it
First train home, I've got to get on it
First train home
[Verse 2]
Temporal dead zone where clocks are barely breathing
(Breathing, breathing, breathing, breathing)
Yet no one cares to notice for all their yamming on
I clam up to hold it together
[Pre-Chorus 2]
I want to Play-Doh waveforms in The Hideaway
Want to get on with getting on with things
I want to run in fields, paint the kitchen and love someone
And I can't do any of that here, can I?
[Chorus 2]
First train home, I've got to get on it
First train home, I've got to get on it
First train home, I've got to get on it
First train home
[Breakdown]
So what? You've had one too many
So what? I'm not that much fun to be with
So what? You've got a silly hat on
So what? I didn't want to come here anyway
[Bridge]
What matters to you, it doesn't matter, matter to me
What matters to me, it doesn't matter, matter to you
What matters to you, it doesn't matter, matter to them
What matters to them, it doesn't change anything
[Chorus 3]
Got to get on it
First train home
Got to get on it
First train home
First train home, I've got to get on it
Got to catch, to catch, catch, catch, catch
First train home, I've got to get on it
First train home
First train...
[Outro]
Got to, got to, got to, got to
Get, get, get, get
Out, out, out, out
Now, now, now, now
First Train Home was written by Imogen Heap.
First Train Home was produced by Imogen Heap.
Imogen Heap released First Train Home on Fri Jul 10 2009.
On how the song came to be:
So [my friend and I] went out [to] this festival – it was good – but being around music made me even more jittery like I should be doing more and getting home…So I was stuck – marooned at this party of people all having such a fantastic time…Panic attack set in. Cold swe...
A total of two music videos for the song were released. The second video was directed by Imogen Heap herself!
Yes. Imogen performed “First Train Home” on the August 28, 2009 episode of The David Letterman Show.