Seal IV - Another Winner

If you like Seal, you'll like his latest effort. It is vintage Seal. The songs are sweet and catchy in the Seal way, with impecable arrangements and soulful singing. As a total album, I think it's better than the previous one (Human Beings?). There is nothing not to like on this one.

The man is an under-appreciated superstar.

I listened to it, I'm sure you would realize I'm not a fan of this guy, but I tried to give it a fair listen. I mentioned in a Tuesday thread some weeks back that the production on this is just absolutely commercial, slick & overdone to an extreme. Jim Clark, who is a Seal fan, remarked that the production is really a big part of the package with this guy. I found it so overwhelming that it took a lot of work to try to suss out the songs beneath the sound. But that's me. I will say this, though: a record I liked a lot better was the most recent one by MeShell NdeGeocello, or however the hell she spells her name. It's also very produced, but I found it to be way more soulful. Comfort Woman is the name of it. I may not have liked the Seal record even if it was produced differently, but I'll pretty much never like a record that sounds like this one.

I still haven't heard it yet.

I do like the overproduced nature of this guy's previous albums (which is as predictable as young master Spero DISliking it). Trevor Horn's a production genius.

But i agree with J that Human Beings suffered from a lack of writing undneath all that layered sound. And I wonder how true that is with this new disc. Barry's comments on the subject are heartening . . .

I fugure that I'll be able to buy a $5 copy of it in 6 months when the used market is overloaded with discarded copies like Human Beings was.

No need to rush out to buy this one. It is very predictable Seal, but extremely well done IMO. I think it has more continuity than Humans, which took me much longer to like. That may also be its weakness. Especially for discerning listeners who like complexity.