Soul - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
(Amazon.co.uk Review) Soul is a confusing beast. We know Seal has a great voice and can easily imagine him being covering golden oldies with aplomb. Yet this collection of soul favourites is frustratingly patchy. Opener "A Change Is Gonna Come" is impassioned and beautifully arranged (the album is helmed by David Foster of Celebrity Duets fame, who has made sure it sounds fresh and compelling), and even though it could never compare to Sam Cooke's original, it's ultimately a successful reworking. Seal applies his sandpapery tones to James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", Al Green's “Here I Am" and “I'm Still in Love With You", and Ben E King's “Stand By Me"--all of them with decent results. Decent, yet hardly overwhelming. And here's where the confusion kicks in: Why cover a bunch of songs that have already been done to death? Christmas being right around the corner is perhaps one good reason in commercial terms. But when you listen to the singer transform less well-trodden territory like Deniece Williams' “Free" or Ann Peeble's “I Can't Stand the Rain", it's hard not to feel this play-it-safe option--while undoubtedly a wonderful Xmas gift--is also a lost creative opportunity. --Danny McKenna

Product Description
A great voice singing great songs recorded by a great producer. That is 'Soul', the sixth studio album from multiplatinum selling, Grammy-winning, critically acclaimed Seal. Each song is a stone-cold soul classic, from Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come', Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me', and Ann Pebbles' 'I Can't Stand The Rain' to Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes' 'If You Don't Know Me By Now' and Otis Redding's 'I've Been Loving You Too Long'. Produced by David Foster, 'Soul' is the perfect coming together of man, material and moment.

Album Description
Grammy-winning vocalist and songwriter Seal will release a new album, SOUL and it is the best-selling artist's sixth studio album and was created in partnership with legendary producer David Foster. SOUL is comprised of eleven classic soul songs that each evokes their own drama, emotion and romance. Seal brings his unique, signature style to the album and found a great collaborative spirit working with Foster. The London-born singer first emerged from Britain's house music scene in the early '90s providing vocals and lyrics for techno artist Adamski's 1990 hit "Killer." The Top Ten debut single, "Crazy," followed and Seal would go on to earn critical acclaim and worldwide commercial success over four albums. Seal's prodigious vocal gifts - his soaring, husky baritone that has become a signature on such hits as "Prayer for the Dying," "Kiss From a Rose," and "Don't Cry" - amplify the emotion he brings to a song.

Customer Reviews: Read 79 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Another missed chance. November 13, 2008
43 out of 58 found this review helpful

With 15 million album sales and three Grammy Awards under his belt, his previous album System was not too convincing, despite the super contemporary production by Jacques Lu Cont, and it failed to make much of a mark.
This new album "Soul" comprises eleven all-time classic soul songs, including Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come", a new version of Ann Peebles' 1974 "I Can't Stand The Rain" and a take of James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World".
The pop-rock minimalism of "Killer" with Adamski in 1990 appears so distant from the musical tradition celebrated here.
To produce it, he has hired the money-and-chart oriented David Foster, a man known for his work with warblers such as Celine Dion. Mariah Carey and Michael Bolton, and doing so, he has crafted pop this luxurious and glossy, in the gloom of this AmIdol-induced karaoke climate.
The result: he has made a record with the epic production values of a Hollywood movie without bringing in an authentic sense of soul, musically and emotionally, never straying too far from a mainstream commercial template.
His voice is soft, hoarse and subtly melancholic, with apleasant tone but little of the quality and the 'heart' of the original American R'n'B singers.
Maybe only on few tracks, he sounds more inspired: on the Gamble and Huff's "If You Don't Know Me By Now", and on the Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You".
There may be a fine line between smooth and bland, but Seal unfortunately crosses it most of times.
In hey-day of his start "Seal was an innovator - constantly pushing the genre boundaries of r 'n' b & dance music - but now we're left hoping he finds some of that magic that seems to have been lost along the way".-BBC

Seal

2 out of 5 stars

Incredibly BORING November 11, 2008
31 out of 47 found this review helpful

First, let me put this in context. I think Seal has one of the best voices in pop music today. I love most of his CDs. This CD, unfortunately, is a complete misfire. I tried to think about how I could condense the problem in a few statements. It comes down to 3 things:

1. The original songs have already been performed at such an extraordinary level of artistic performance by the original artists, that it's going to be tough to out perform them here.

2. The arrangements are just lackluster and completely boring. Seal's voice can't fix that problem. Listening to this CD was like hanging out in the waiting room at the doctor's office.

3. Seal's interpretation of these songs is so uniteresting and so "middle of the road", that I found myself switching the display on the time counter on the CD player to see how much longer the track would last.

I really love his voice, but this is incredibly boring.

1 out of 5 stars

Seal continues to destroy his career November 12, 2008
22 out of 33 found this review helpful

You have to wonder if Seals's newfound supermodel lifestyle, hunkered down with Heidi Klum and a baby, has terminally impacted his ability to produce worthwhile music. His last release, "System", was a mediocre affair, and this new record continues the nose dive. Seal, bubela, you're supposed to make a covers record when your career is on the wane, like Rod Stewart or Michael McDonald. When all your fans are OLD, don't buy records or see shows anymore, when life puts you alongside them in the middle of the road, afraid to take chances or hear anything new. You DON'T make this kind of record when you're young and still somewhat hip.

David Foster is a really bad choice as a producer - this is a guy who makes schmaltzy, overproduced, MOR records. Seal did his best work with Trevor Horn, and the more records he makes without Horn, the more it seems obvious that most of what made Seal cool was Trevor Horn's production.

4 out of 5 stars

System to Soul November 11, 2008
16 out of 24 found this review helpful

On his sixth studio album, UK singer Seal follows up his brilliant but under-performing dance album "System" with "Soul". The album name is inspired by the fact that it comprises covers of 12 Soul classics.

Produced by David Foster, it contains classics like Sam Cooke's "A change is gonna come", a lightly stomping version of Ann Peebles' "I can't stand the rain" (though Tina Turner's is still my favourite version), James Brown's "It's a man's man's world", Ben E. King's "Stand by me", a sombre reading of Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes' "If you don't know me by now", and Deniece Williams' breezy almost Jazzy "Free", to mention a few.

My favourites though are the Marvin Gaye-sounding "I'm still in love with you", and the closing cut "People get ready" with a gospel-style chorus adding to the fervor of the track. Seal's raspy voice is perfectly suited to these classics even if its never used to soaring effect (like on his "Kiss from a rose").

The song arrangements largely stay true to the originals (with minor tweaks here and there) and I'm sure this will appeal to some fans as well as those unfamiliar with the originals. Hopefully, this CD will introduce these classics to a new generation of music lovers.

3 out of 5 stars

Flawless Software But Little Else November 13, 2008
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

Soul is a disc that you really want to like - stellar production - amazing talent - legendary material - almost guaranteeing that Seal's tribute to the golden era of Soul and R&B would easily score five stars on technical merit alone.

So where's my enthusiasm? Upon further review, I suspect it was left at the door with the headliner who, while making an airtight composite of a great album, fell prey to the fatal flaw of most artists who take on an entire recording of cover material - holding the songs so tight that they forget to forego the Kareoke and leave little of themselves on the final take.

To be fair, there's not one truly bad cut on the entire disc (I Can't Stand The Rain and If You Don't Know Me By Now are standouts) however, Soul projects an overwhelming "in the moment" feel - a coolly professional encounter that leaves no lasting impression.

Instead of simply pulling all the levers in his quest to "manufacture" a great record, Seal would have been better served bringing his heart as well as his body to the sessions. There's actually much here to like - just not much to remember.

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