Seal - System
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CD Details
Artist: SealEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2007-11-13
Music Label: Warner Brothers/Elektra/Atlantic
Product features:
- SEAL SYSTEM
- If It's In My Mind, It's On My Face
- Amazing( Thin White Duke Edit)
- Just Like Before
- Loaded
- Wedding Day
- System
- Dumb
- The Right Life
- Rolling
- Immaculate
- Amazing
Music reviews of System
Music Review: Seal: Just tryin' to beat the system
Rating: 3 Stars
"We're just tryin' to beat the system," Seal wails on his fifth album, SYSTEM, and that is indeed what he's trying to do. Emphasis on "trying." This is the first time Seal has ever seemed self-conscious, and that's very nearly SYSTEM's death knell. The problem isn't that he's lost it, but that he thinks he needs to re-find it. One could argue that Seal is starting a new chapter in his career: this is his first album without longtime producer and friend Trevor Horn, who wound up a Brutus (see the seventh track, "Dumb"). His new producer, Stuart Price (who, as so many have pointed out, also produced Madonna's retro re-invention CONFESSIONS ON A DANCE FLOOR), gives Seal what he wants - pulsating, pounding techno beats - but not what he needs: Horn's lush, full, satisfying soundscapes. On his previous records, it seemed like Seal's voice rose to the heavens and filled the lands; here, it sounds like he's in a recording studio.
SYSTEM actually has a lot in common with Madonna's CONFESSIONS. Both promise returns to their dance beginnings, and both find typically confident artists feelings disturbingly self-aware. Also, both CONFESSIONS and SYSTEM make their respective artists seem like "veterans" who have already said all they have to say, and are now just saying more to please their respective fans. In his defense, on SYSTEM Seal doesn't seem like he's spent. He just seems, well, less important than he usually does, his voice and craftsmanship often overshadowed by Price's thick, noisy beats.
SYSTEM, though not intended as such, comes across as a darker album than one might expect. Price's beats come to life when paired with Seal's vocals, but fall apart on their own (except for on "The Right Life"). The dark cover art depicts Seal's reflection in a mirror ball in the darkness, and that's just where this music should be played: in some dark, trendy club late at night. To top it all off, Seal's voice isn't as smooth and limitless as once it was; his high notes have taken on a huskiness which he could (and should) take advantage of on a future album.
On the bright side, SYSTEM offers some of Seal's most interesting compositions. The chief curiosity is "Wedding Day," a duet with his wife, Heidi Klum, which Seal wrote the morning of his wedding. He must not have touched it since, because the song is a hurried, unstructured bit of kitsche. (For the record, though, Ms. Klum has a surprisingly good voice.) Despite his intentions to return to the style of his debut, only one song recalls that album: the pounding, shimmering "The Right Life." The reflectively optimistic "Rolling" recalls SEAL II (1994), and moments of "Immaculate" sound like snippets of Seal's appallingly undervalued HUMAN BEING. Probably the highlight of the album is the unexpectedly affecting "Just Like Before," a glittering gem of a tune that ranks among the catchiest and best songs Seal has written in years.
This is the first and only album since Seal's debut not to begin with one song and end with a reprise of that song, although the second track is the Thin White Duke Edit of the lead single, "Amazing," the original version of which closes out the album. (Seal has said that he considered the Thin White Duke edit to be superior to his original cut, and that he will be performing that version of the song in the future. I wholeheartedly disagree. Whereas the Thin White Duke edit is cold and tired, Seal's original version is jubilant, very fun, and quite dance-worthy.)
Seal always tries to make each of his albums different and new, and he does so by evolving or experimenting with his sound. SYSTEM is definitely a step in a different direction, considering that his last record (2003's SEAL IV) was composed mostly of lush, dreamy ballads. Ultimately, though, it's a misstep. Despite much of the material being Seal's best since the 90s, the album as a whole just doesn't ring true. Yes, it's sturdier and probably a little more consistent than SEAL IV, but it's too self-aware and, in some parts, hollow, to make it the superior record. That's not to say it's bad, though, because it certainly isn't; in fact, SYSTEM will certainly be sufficient to satisfy Seal fans until he releases his next album sometime within the next three years or so.
So what's next for Seal? It would be nice to see him return to the jeweled pop of HUMAN BEING, or to explore the Marvin Gaye-style R&B he hinted at with SEAL IV's "Get It Together." Even nicer: he could release TOGETHERLAND, the legendary album originally intended to be his fourth, which he shelved because he felt it wasn't up to his standards. Fans have found pieces of it scattered around, and they say differently. (I've only heard one track from the album, but let me tell you, I thought it was brilliant.) Seal recently promised to find what he could of the album and stream it through his official site. As with anything Seal does, that sounds good to me.
Description of System
Some artists mellow as they age; Seal enters never-surrender mode and hits the dance floor. System gets at a new way of thinking for the king of the sexy British croon--he's a little less committed to nailing the vocals here and a lot more into manufacturing a mood. Overall, it's one infused with high spirits and an almost dreamy sense of possibility: "Rolling," the only song outside of a weird duet with wife Heidi Klum ("Wedding Day") to avoid elaborate but likable synths, stands its romantic ground without settling into ho-hum balladry, while "Loaded," "Dumb," and "The Right Life" bust out of the speakers determined to raise the profile of house music and electro beats. If he cribs a vial or two of vibe from Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor,, also produced by retro whiz-kid Stuart Price, it doesn't make Seal any less appealing. Even without hits like the super-smooth "Amazing," some guys manage to be amazing just by showing up. And so it is with Seal. Even his superm! odel wife says so. --Tammy La GorceThe first studio album in four years from Seal, System, with its shimmering melodies, layers of synths and acoustic guitar, and electronic beats, is a return to my roots says the singer-songwriter. To help him deliver a more dance oriented album, what he calls a quintessential Seal album, Seal turned to Stuart Price(Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor and Grammy-winning remixes for No Doubt and Coldplay).
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