Seal IV - Another Winner

[BarryL]

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.

[MindGoneHaywire]

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.

[Troy]

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.

[BarryL]

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.