Cover Story

Seal releases SEAL IV

“I was able to create the perfect conditions to stimulate great productivity. It was like breaking a code, opening up a valve. I'm in the midst of the most creative period of my life and I think you can hear it on this album." …SEAL

After five years away, Seal is back with his new album entitled simply 'Seal.' It's a sublime collection of eleven new songs on a par with Seal's best work to date. The new material is elevated by Seal's rich vocal gift, a voice that has continued to evolve with newfound levels of soul and strength.

While the album began to take shape a year ago, it is actually the end result of a long and sometimes painful period of creative reappraisal, a process that began almost three years earlier.

"I wrote and recorded a whole other album," he explains. "But when it was all said and done, it just wasn't good enough. It took a while to accept that fact, and a while longer to regain my perspective. But I don't think I could have done this album without going through that experience. It allowed me to begin again, to rediscover what I loved about music and how to best express that love."

Rekindling the flame required a radical return to Seal's roots. "I'd been living in Los Angeles for twelve years," he continues, "and the first thing I did was to move back to London where I got started." According to this Paddington born native of Nigerian and Brazilian ancestry, "there's a certain grit to that city, an energy and immediacy that had inspired me from the beginning.

It wasn't as if I was trying to recapture anything. I just wanted to make the connection to a place that had always served me well." This included ongoing collaborations with songwriters including Alan Griffiths.


Courtesy Hip Online
Photo Courtesy www.seal.com