Seal - Soul

(Muso's Guide, November 28, 2008)

Album

In the true meaning of the word, soul is under-represented in modern music. Soul which incorporated gospel and old-style rhythm and blues, belted out by Otis, or Sam Cooke, or Marvin Gaye - in true grandad style, they simply don’t make them like that anymore.

Seal Henry Samuel obviously agrees with that particular standpoint, because he’s only gone and released an album of soul covers. One would assume that these are desperate times in the Seal household, as the 2007 album System didn’t perform so well. In fact, the album that was touted as a “return to his dance roots” - and featured a nauseating duet with supermodel spouse Heidi Klum - has actually turned out to be one of Seal’s worst-performing in the US. So now he’s gone back to his soul roots, which is much better.

Lead single and album opener ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ is one of the most breathtaking tracks in Sam Cooke’s canon, released back in the civil rights hotbed of 1964. On Soul, Seal’s version is a cascade of strings and honey-smooth vocals and he sings with all the grace of Cooke. The impassioned voice here elevates Seal, equalising him briefly with some of the greatest singers of all time who have committed this song to record - from Cooke to Franklin to Green to Redding.

On ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’, it’s a slightly different story. The voice is still there, but something about the rendering is slightly uneasy. The steamy allure of Ann Peebles’ original seems to have gotten lost amid Seal’s neat, over-produced orchestration. Similarly, James Brown’s ‘It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ is diluted like Simon Quinlank’s weak lemon drink. Seal’s version is serviceable, and his voice is no less velveteen than before, but the unfettered drama and yearning of Brown in the original is replaced with perfect pitch and stern strings. The magic has been stripped out, which is pretty unforgivable. Through Al Green, Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield, Seal continues his homage to the greats, but without the punch and performance that made them the greats, which is really a shame. Even Ben E. King’s standard anthem ‘Stand By Me’ isn’t safe from Seal’s well-meaning clutches.

At best the record is something of a genius marketing decision to be made around the festive period, and there really are a lot of amazing songs on show here - but, to be honest, one would be hard pushed to hear where Seal has made these songs any better than their iconic originals, or how he expected to. Come on, Seal - dig out your soul.