Seal is one of those artists who pretty much does one thing, but does it exceptionally well.\u00a0 There\u2019s little subtlety to his music \u2013 for the most part it\u2019s as big and bold and stylized as his voice \u2013 but the complete package is undeniably powerful.\u00a0 Throbbing beats, sweeping ballads, soulful vocals and lyrics full of sincere if occasionally overblown melodrama \u2013 these are the building blocks of the sound Seal has rarely varied across his nearly two-decade career.<\/p>\n
His 2007 disc System<\/i> was positioned by some in the mainstream media as a \u201ccomeback,\u201d which is fairly laughable, since he never went away.\u00a0 Yes, the long gaps between his albums and a relative dearth of hits after 1994\u2019s second self-titled disc had moved him back into the middle of the pack stardom-wise, but he was still a respected, solidly successful working artist when his marriage to supermodel Heidi Klum suddenly thrust him into the tabloid spotlight.<\/p>\n
Given the man\u2019s innate sense of drama \u2013 it drips from every line of ballads like \u201cRolling\u201d \u2013 it should be no surprise, then, that Seal doesn\u2019t hesitate to sprinkle a little Heidi dust over this album by inviting her to duet with him on the sweetly pulsing \u201cWedding Day.\u201d\u00a0 Ah, but in this instance he comes out smelling like one of the roses he so famously used to kiss, because \u2013 quel suprise \u2013 (a) Heidi\u2019s voice isn\u2019t half bad, and (b) their duet is cleverly arranged so as to maximize its impact while keeping Seal\u2019s voice out front most of the time.<\/p>\n
The moments where this album really shines for me, though, are the ones where Seal reaches back for the throbbing dance floor magic he captured more than once in the early days.\u00a0 \u201cIf It\u2019s In My Mind, It\u2019s On My Face\u201d opens with an airy first verse and chorus before dropping into a beat designed to get hips aswiveling anytime, anywhere.\u00a0 \u201cAmazing\u201d goes synth-heavy in support of a throbbing, soaring, inspirational tune that \u2013 like most of Seal\u2019s strongest tracks \u2013 is simply made to played loud.\u00a0 Producer Stuart Price (Madonna, The Killers) clearly took notes on the punchy, spacious production Trevor Horn achieved on Seal\u2019s first four studio discs and, to his credit,\u00a0 doesn\u2019t mess with the template much (if it ain\u2019t broke\u2026).\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Other highlights include the ringing \u201cJust Like Before,\u201d with its mountain-high vocal arrangement; the densely layered title track, whose percussive loops build to an indelibly catchy chorus; \u201cDumb,\u201d whose awkward lyric is overcome by its dynamic acoustic guitar-synthesizer interplay; and the lush, propulsive \u201cThe Right Life,\u201d a house track with a big heart. <\/p>\n
Seal doesn\u2019t break much new ground with System<\/i>, but when building an album around an instrument as powerful and distinctive as his voice, there\u2019s not much to be gained by experimentation for experimentation\u2019s sake.\u00a0 Yes, the perfectionist production can get a bit sterile at times, but it\u2019s so crisp and dramatic when you turn it up, it\u2019s like champagne for the ears.\u00a0 This album isn\u2019t likely to change anyone\u2019s world, but it\u2019s a solid Seal album, and with a talent as big as his, that\u2019s often enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6091],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41795","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-seal","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41795","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41795"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}