Ladies and gentlemen, Seal gets funky.<\/p>\n
Seal has managed to remain one of the more iconoclastic and
\nidiosyncratic artists out there, despite his mass-market success
\nwith songs like “Kiss From A Rose”. His music remains accessible
\nyet unique, a rich blend of soul, R&B, and pop with occasional
\nother influences. He started out in acid and house music, he’s
\nplayed blues, he’s dabbled in world music — but until
\nSeal IV<\/i>, we had never seen the Funky Seal in action. I guess
\nit must have been time, because he kicks out quite a few jams on
\nhis latest effort.<\/p>\n
As always, the producer is Trevor Horn, and Horn’s crisp, sharp
\nstyle fits Seal’s smooth and stylish vocal style to a T. Horn also
\nproves himself to be capable of handling Seal’s changing sound.
\nWhat is different about
\nIV<\/i> is hard to define; we’ve already used the term funky, and
\nthat definitely applies on songs like “Get It Together”, with its
\nSly and the Family Stone backbeat, and “Don’t Make Me Wait”, with a
\nstately piano providing a counterpoint to Seal’s gospel-tinged
\nvocals. Another word might be brighter; this may be the most upbeat
\nSeal has ever been, and it’s a huge change after the ambient and
\nmoody Human Being, his last release. “Let Me Roll” is damn near a
\nrock song, with a doo-wop baritone harmony vocal, Abbaesque string
\nhits, and a punchy drum line. On the other hand, there are songs in
\nthe more traditional Seal groove, wistful and ethereal — “My
\nVision”, “Loneliest Star”, and “Touch” are good examples.<\/p>\n
Seal even tries his hand at almost-reggae on “Where There’s
\nGold”, and does just fine, thanks. “Heavenly\u2026” is a typical
\nSeal power soul number with an almost numinous feel to it, gorgeous
\nsoaring vocals providing a glorious centerpiece. Finally, almost
\ncasually, he throws off “Waiting For You”, which is one of the most
\npowerful singles I’ve ever heard and deserves a lot more airplay
\nthan it’s getting.<\/p>\n
The balance that Seal has struck is notable; he’s kept the core
\nof the sound that first grabbed us with “Crazy”, twelve years ago,
\nbut he’s added elements as he’s grown in maturity and skill.
\nSeal IV<\/i> is a truly special album, and not to be missed; a
\nfine effort by an artist I suspect will be remembered as one of the
\ngreatest of our time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6091],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37760","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-seal","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37760"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}