Track Listing

1. Bring It On
2. Prayer For The Dying
3. Dreaming In Metaphors
4. Don�t Cry
5. Fast Changes
6. Kiss From A Rose
7. People Asking Why
8. Newborn Friend
9. If I Could
10. I�m Alive
11. Bring It On (Reprise)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39128 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
A far deeper, more enduring outing than his spectacular 1991 debut. Producer Trevor Horn calls on a cast of dozens (including Joni Mitchell who duets on the lovely "If I Could" and the ubiquitous Jeff Beck) and channels his famous, over-the-top tendencies into a sumptuous bed of sound that makes Tears for Fears sound minimal. Soulful first single "Prayer for the Dying" will set the pace, while "Kiss From A Rose" is a huge ballad. --Jeff Bateman

CD Description
British native Sealhenry Samuel is a tall, strikingly handsome son of Nigerian/Brazilian lineage, with a richly evocative voice that at times suggests the milieu of great song stylists such as Marvin Gaye, Peter Gabriel and Milton Nascimento. SEAL is decidedly sexy yet never descends into the ooh-baby smarminess so prevalent on top of the R&B charts; it is boldly eclectic yet never loses its tight, poppy stylistic focus; and it exudes real spiritual warmth without becoming sappy or preachy. Together with producer Trevor Horn (Art Of Noise, Rod Stewart, Yes), Seal has created a spacious sonic canvas that is as big and exotic as the singer himself, a colourful mixture of moods with a classic touch.
On "PrayerFor The Dying", Seal celebrates the ongoing dance between the living and the dead from both points of view, seeing it all as part of the natural order of things--not strictly tragic. On "Dreaming In Metaphors" he enunciates another personal journey of faith, and wonders aloud why we "Try to hold onto something we couldn't understand". On "Fast Changes", he mixes and matches folk, jazz and Indian sensibilities in an acoustic guitar flavoured love song that recalls the Joni Mitchell of HEJIRA. Joni returns the favour by harmonising with Seal on the hymn-like changes of "If I Could", the langourof the arrangement standing in stark contrast to the pleas of lovers drifting apart. All in all, SEAL is a vibrant, original vision of pop that should propel Seal to internationalsuperstardom.

Customer Reviews

Emotionally Appealing Music
Seal is a fantastic artist. I think he is very underated. This album took two years and 6 months to write and it shows. The amount of depth and accuracy with the instruments and vocals is astounding.

What an entrance to the album with "Bring it on". A fantastic start with great vocals and power. A great beat, which gets you going and puts some umpf in to your step. It's all about an introvert who is changing to become an extrovert.

The second song starts beautifully mellow and whisks you away to cloud 6. Once the beat gets going you will move on to Cloud 9. Seal sings this as if he is all the dying people in the world. Great vocals again.

The third song has a bit of a bassy beat which is fine because it relates to what the song is about. It is about someone that can never see things in reality and never understands the reason why.

The fourth song is about a man talking to his partner about the troubles throughout their life. Starts very mellow and builds up slowly to a fascinating vocal contribution.

The fifth song has a fascinating mix of instruments. It gels so well and has an air of retorical speech about it. Seal talks to himself in this and wants you to hear.

The sixth song is the Batman song, mind you if the song was not written for the movie then it still would have been a hit!

The seventh song is a ballad really. Fantastic piano playing at the beginning that gives the song definition. This leads to a song that is powerful about one question: "Why do people ask why?"

The eighth song is a bit more of a dance song that has a slower tempo than your average dance song. Talks about how a man is turning over a new leaf.

The ninth song sounds surreal. "If I could" is about a man that is trying to convince his friend that their war is over.

The tenth song is a new breath, new blood, wake up on the right side of the bed song. It gets you going for the day.

The last song is a reprise for the first. Very classily done!

Buy it! It's excellent.

Trust me (I`m not a Doctor!) but you need to own this!!!
To most people,mention the name "Seal" & you are more or less guaranteed that two of his songs will be vaguely familiar ..."That Adamski Killer Thing!",& maybe even the single "Kiss from a rose"........
The latter features on this album & is an indication of the quality song writing that`s on offer with every track here.
This could have so easily been one of those album`s, that has one good song, (that was released as a single) & ten instantly forgettable other`s.
It is not.
This guy is good,..& I mean very,very,good.
Any band or solo artist of note,will,at some point,produce what is considered to be their seminal album,A time in their career when they are at their finest,& most inspired.
This documents that time for Seal.
It astounds me that this CD continues to be one of the best kept secret`s around.
Every home should have one!

A really solid album.
This album, Seal's second, may be his best. The production work by Trevor Horn remains among his best work - the two artists seem designed to compliment each other.

It's a bit of a contradictory piece of work, though, because on the one hand you have lyrical whimsy which waftily alludes to drug-taking and paints Utopian dreamscapes - and on the other have po-faced social commentary, like "Prayer for the Dying". Would the real Seal please stand up?

I think he's the folky troubadour who got all danced-up by Mr Horn, first and foremost. Not that this is a dance album. Far from it. In fact there is very little here that is up-tempo.

What there is, though, is some really interesting song-writing, some great musicianship, first class production, and that velvet, beautiful vocal. It would be a fascinating thing indeed to hear what a different producer would do with his work over the course of a whole album.

My main gripe, and the thing which stops it getting 5 stars, is the fact that there are no individual great songs on it, for me. The album, as a homogenic whole, is a wonderful listen - but I don't always want to listen to a whole album, I sometimes want to cherry-pick a few tracks - and these don't seem to stand up to that too well. They're interesting, sure - but classic? There's no 'Crazy' on this album.

Having said that, my favourite track (though not quite classic) would have to be the duet with Joni Mitchell, "If I Could", which is beautifully realised - the two husky voices playing off each other to great effect.

As an album, then - fabulous. The tracks individually? Less so. The production? Pretty peerless. Recommended.