It’s nearly 20 years since the release of Imogen Heap’s ‘Speak for Yourself’ album in 2005.
‘Hide and Seek’ has been its most prominent track over the years since, aided by some prominent syncs, but now another song from the album is enjoying a renewed surge.
‘Headlock’ peaked at number 74 in the UK charts when it was released as a single in 2006, but at the time of writing it’s nestled at number 30, as well as zooming back into Spotify and Billboard’s US singles charts.
Why the resurgence? It’s partly a gaming thing: the enthusiastic adoption of the track by players of an independent horror game called Mouthwashing which came out in 2024.
As their fan-edits and memes found their way onto TikTok, the song was picked up on for other trends there, from relationship videos to cosplay.
Cue a viral spike, with ‘Headlock’ now having been used in more than 170k videos on TikTok. And Heap herself is now joining in the fun with her own account on the app.
“I don’t understand this TikTok thing but thank you and please carry on!” jokes her bio, with more than 274,000 people now following her.
