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Soul Curry

Kenneth Lobo

Posted online: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 0042 hrs IST

When an artiste puts a dark, tiled mosaic of himself on the cover of his album— despite two prominent scars — you assume that either it’s a really dark album or the guy’s famous as hell and doesn’t really care. In the case of Sealhenry Olumide Samuel or Seal, it’s obviously the latter. Initially depressed about the half-moon scars that were left by a skin ailment, the singer-song writer was later convinced that they were an omen of stardom, serving as a kind of insignia. System’s art work proves that he wasn’t kidding. In fact, the centre sleeve has an even more intense image of him.

But System isn’t a visual album. Like all of Seal’s previous efforts, it’s about Soul. Except, he’s gone dance-floor crazy. Imagine a six-foot-four-inch man, with deep scars, serenading you with, “Living in a dream and I wake up/Wondering where I’m going to. But it’s true, when I wake up, I see you.” It’s like Danny Denzongpa going Dil Toh Pagal Hain. Who says you care about seeing anyone’s face in the dark anyways?

Just Like Before (Rain came down like a melody at your door/Heard it before/Rain in your hair/Cried last night but you couldn’t get out of bed) is Seal at his best on System. A leisurely dance tune that is all about his voice and the emotion — the synth and bass plucks lending it a melancholic tint. Perfect and set for repeated radio play.

Stuart Price (the producer who did Madonna’s Ray of Light and Confessions an a Dancefloor) works with Seal on Loaded and The Right Life. The acoustic guitar work and that accompanies the electro-pop on the latter doesn’t quite gel, especially when the euphoria builds, sounding like a Spanish banjo quartet forced to strum in a Brooklyn-bound metro. The breakdowns — just Seal’s voice or the instrumentation is far better. Loaded, on the other, is focused in its house beats, though unlike previous albums, Seal’s version of Soul is far more apathetic.

That irony won’t be lost on Seal fans. A lot of the writing on System is relationship and settling-down-in-life based, since his wedding to actor Heidi Klum and their children. When Seal slows the pace down, which he finally does on the duet Wedding Day (Klum or Missus Samuel), crooning, “You’re my girl/You’re my angel, throwing in scat and oohing and aahing and whatnot, the result is forced if not entirely artificial. Klum’s voice is electronically treated (perhaps to hide her vocal deficiencies) and really shouldn’t have been here. The title track System rescues Seal from self-indulgence.

Whether the entire album is a repetition of one or several tracks, cloned with tiny variations is what listeners should ask themselves. Perhaps Seal would have done better including more genres of house music, rather than an 11-track franchised version of dance-floor pop.

Seal, System

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Soul Curry Kenneth Lobo Posted online: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 0042 hrs IST When an artiste puts a dark, tiled mosaic of himself on the cover of his album— despite two prominent scars — you assume that either it’s a really dark album or the guy’s famous as hell and doesn’t really care. In the case of Sealhenry Olumide Samuel or Seal, it’s obviously the latter. Initially depressed about the half-moon scars that were left by a skin ailment, the singer-song writer was later convinced that they were an omen of stardom, serving as a kind of insignia. System’s art work proves that he wasn’t kidding. In fact, the centre sleeve has an even more intense image of him. But System isn’t a visual album. Like all of Seal’s previous efforts, it’s about Soul. Except, he’s gone dance-floor crazy. Imagine a six-foot-four-inch man, with deep scars, serenading you with, “Living in a dream and I wake up/Wondering where I’m going to. But it’s true, when I wake up, I see you.” It’s like Danny Denzongpa going Dil Toh Pagal Hain. Who says you care about seeing anyone’s face in the dark anyways? Just Like Before (Rain came down like a melody at your door/Heard it before/Rain in your hair/Cried last night but you couldn’t get out of bed) is Seal at his best on System. A leisurely dance tune that is all about his voice and the emotion — the synth and bass plucks lending it a melancholic tint. Perfect and set for repeated radio play. Stuart Price (the producer who did Madonna’s Ray of Light and Confessions an a Dancefloor) works with Seal on Loaded and The Right Life. The acoustic guitar work and that accompanies the electro-pop on the latter doesn’t quite gel, especially when the euphoria builds, sounding like a Spanish banjo quartet forced to strum in a Brooklyn-bound metro. The breakdowns — just Seal’s voice or the instrumentation is far better. Loaded, on the other, is focused in its house beats, though unlike previous albums, Seal’s version of Soul is far more apathetic. That irony won’t be lost on Seal fans. A lot of the writing on System is relationship and settling-down-in-life based, since his wedding to actor Heidi Klum and their children. When Seal slows the pace down, which he finally does on the duet Wedding Day (Klum or Missus Samuel), crooning, “You’re my girl/You’re my angel, throwing in scat and oohing and aahing and whatnot, the result is forced if not entirely artificial. Klum’s voice is electronically treated (perhaps to hide her vocal deficiencies) and really shouldn’t have been here. The title track System rescues Seal from self-indulgence. Whether the entire album is a repetition of one or several tracks, cloned with tiny variations is what listeners should ask themselves. Perhaps Seal would have done better including more genres of house music, rather than an 11-track franchised version of dance-floor pop. Seal, System