Seal, part 2

Last month, Seal's seventh full-length album, Commitment, hit stores with little anticipation. In fact, the only thing that garnered much news was the awkward "artistic" video of him and Heidi Klum draped in sheets and celebrating married love. eew. I have been listening to Commitment for a week or so, and I am not sure what to say. Is it great? No. Is it good? Yes. Is it lame? Sort of. Is it interesting? Yes. Is it worth listening to? I guess. Here is the "why" to all the yesses and nos, quickly:

Is it great? No. Seal already made his great album, and it commercially failed, so everything after it has been an attempt to establish a slightly different sound that can appeal to "adult contemporary" that still is interesting enough to keep Seal invested. Commitment has too many power ballads with treacly instrumentation to be great.

Is it good? Yes. Seal's voice, own tunes, and slick production all make for good albums, I think. There is a clarity and conviction that makes you believe the album is as good as Seal thinks it is. This was lacking on his terrible covers album, Soul, which is why that is the worst part of his discography. When he is singing other people's songs, his voice and intonation don't translate, and he sounds like a lounge singer. Any album with original songs by Seal avoids that.

Is it lame? Sort of. Listening to the lyrics is a little depressing. His lines are often overly-sentimental and light, to the point that they don't mean anything without the associated dead metaphors to which they correspond. Imagining Heidi Klum and his little brood behind all his lyrics makes me depressed, not because I disapprove but because happy families does not good pop make. Or at least good fodder for lyrics. I am happy that Seal is happy, but he hasn't figured out a good way to express his happiness. Songwriters rarely do--that is why they write heartbreak songs.

Is it interesting? Yes. Despite the cheesy instrumentation, Seal writes really interesting pop melodies. He always has. Each song is almost predictable, but that is the interesting part: "almost." He writes melodies that move conventionally and then then turn on strange minor chords and color the songs with a melancholy that is surprising. "Surprising melancholy" is one of the characteristics of married life and commitment that Seal nails. To hear his melodies (forget the lyrics for the most part) navigate the strange business of his album title is really interesting.

Let's let this question drive our defense of his career. Mind you, I have not looked at reviews of Seal over the years and my career restrospective is based solely on my friends' various reactions to his music, which is rarely positive. Nevertheless, I assume those reactions are fairly indicative of critical response, just because I know these things: I have read enough film, music, and book reviews in the last ten years to accurately predict critical response to almost anything. I am not bragging--I have put in more reps when it comes to reading reviews than just about anybody. It's true, okay?

So Seal began with Seal, or, it should be said, with "Crazy," an endlessly sample-able song that has endured pretty well. If you listen to it tonight, it will still sound fresh, which is Seal at his best. Its central riff, a modulating bass groove that is moved up an octave and made into the rhythm guitar, is like an upward, staccato glissando over which Seal's voice tells us that we are not going to survive unless we get crazy. This immediately describes the good, bad, and ugly: the music is good, a fascinating groove that can't help but being cool; the lyrics are bad, a platitude that has little do with the careful control of the musical lines, and the conjunction is ugly, especially considering that the verses are interesting--things about kids with guns and stuff--when the chorus then devolves into being crazy to survive. The song is great, the lyrics not so much, or at least the choruses, and the frustration comes from trying to get the two to be compatible. The rest of the album is pretty much the same: really interesting, new music with fascinating melodies and impeccable delivery dogged by inconsistent lyrics. (I exempt "Violet," the best song on the record, which has interesting lyrics to go along with its perfect instrumentation).

Seal corrected this in his second album, which is very good. His lyrics, from beginning to end, refuse to get stuck in cliches, mostly anyway, and the melodies are strange enough to accompany the really powerful words. Of course, this is the album that gave us "Kiss from a Rose," but upon a first listen, the song is remarkably fresh. Trust me, Mark and I were listening to this album long before the song became a love song for Batman Forever, and the song was intriguing, not just for its lyrics but for the sheer artistry of its arrangement. Its melody is perfect for an echo chamber, and that is really what the song sounds like, mourning from a tomb. The problem with this album was not the melodies or lyrics (sure, "Don't Cry" has bad lyrics, but that is just one song), it was the arrangements, ironically considering I just praised the "Kiss from a Rose" orchestration. The arrangements were overdone, the sound often meshing together to formlessness so that it sounded a little too melodramatic.

Again, my sense is that Seal (and Trevor Horn) corrected this on his third album, what I consider his "great" album, Human Being. This is the album that does everything right--interesting lyrics, Seal's melody at its strangest, and haunting arrangements that go from bombastic, as in the title song, to minimal, as in the beautiful "No Easy Way." Oddly enough, this album was a commercial failure, probably because it is his least accessible work. Albums that endure well usually don't fare well at the box office, for whatever reason. It really is a shame that Human Being failed, though, because it pushed Seal away from the demons and experiments with melody towards more maintsream adult contemporary.

Seal IV was supposed to take him back to the mainstream, and the album lacked personality for it. Don't get me wrong, it is an underrated album, and it showcases his songwriting still, but the arrangements often sound like 1970s dance factory and too many of the songs feel insubstantial. Again, the album is worth listening to, particularly the song "Heavenly," but it is a departure from the Seal that worked so well in Human Being. The sad thing about all this is that Seal refused to trust how unique his stuff could be, and instead he tried to reshape his songs to fit styles that seem tired and already have very skilled vocalists (vocalists that have more conventional voices) patrolling the waters.

The next experiment--a simple dance record, System, from beginning to end--was a step in the right direction, and I dare someone to listen to this album and not find it catchy and fun. It is really good, but it also doesn't do him justice. Seal's voice, which has perfect pitch, especially live, is also totally unique. It is too thin for classic soul, which makes his versions of classic soul songs, as on his crap album Soul, sound horrible, but it is too rich for simple dance music. Yet his songwriting ability is still on display here, and the songs do things that you can't get out of your head. My kids loved a few of the songs on this album a few years ago, and my sense is that he wrote much of his catchiest sing-songy stuff for the dance album. I thought perhaps that this was Seal going back to his roots, willing to try out new forms again and fit his songwriting style to his own unique genre.

As for his sixth album Soul, I have already said too much.

This all leads us to Commitment, which I already reviewed. But here is the crux of my defense of Seal: his songs endure. He has an incredible gift for writing really interesting songs that don't seem gimmicky nor do they seem manufactured. He probably won't put out another Human Being, but he has enough talent, both for singing and writing, where I am always interested in what happens. Now, mind you, I have been only talking about his albums, and I have purposely put aside his persona, which is not as hip as it once was. But I take his music pretty seriously, and by doing so, I think I am giving it a fair shake. He has some bad songs, and usually those are the songs that are played as singles and in movies, but his albums are strong and full of ideas.

Besides, I once owned a shirt that had "Yes" written in a Sharpie in the front and "Seal" with a sharpie in the back. It was a lot better than shelling out 25 dollars for a concert t-shirt and it worked for two different concerts. I also used "When a Man is Wrong" to apologize to a girl when I was 17. It sort of worked, kind of like the song. Kind of like Seal, post-Human Being.