Disco de Seal: “Best 1991-2004 [Digipak]”

After four albums (and a few soundtrack appearances), Seal has put out a stellar greatest hits album. Absolutely stellar.

And the way to purchase the album is to get THIS version, as the acoustic disc is a worthy buy on its' own. It's revelatory.

The songs selected for the "regular" disc are the ones any self-respecting Seal fan would approve of. For my taste, there is a little too much emphasis on his fourth (most recent) disc, and there's probably one (or two) too many covers.

It may be my imagination, but the songs from his first two albums sound remastered, and I would have preferred one or two more songs from THOSE records.

Nevertheless, listening to the entire disc, there's no denying Seal is an amazingly talented individual. There has not been as perfect a partnership between an artist and a producer (Trevor Horn) since Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones.

Seal should be huge.

That said, this disc would be the perfect gift for ANY music fan on your list. It has appeal towards pop fans, R&B lovers, those who appreciate what was once called "soul" music, and even the open "alternative" music aficionados.

The second disc, simply put, is a joy to listen to. It's an exquisite set of his songs re-done in "acoustic" fashion. Seal clearly put this together out of a passion for performing in this manner, and it shows.

This makes an outstanding greatest hits collection into an essential purchase.

Often at times, an atist from overseas really doesn't get credited with reflecting on a good sense of soul. That really seems to happen quite a lot. For an artist like Seal, that really is one good reflection by a longshot. Since his career started in 1991, he has dominated a true, rich sense of mixing the feel of Pop, Soul, and contemporary vocals in complete unison. Yet, with a lot of corporate pop artists, and manufactured wannabes ruling the airwaves, it is just too simple to forget just how meaningful his songs actually are felt. They are just remarkable.

Seal: Best of 1991-2004, is a very good reflection of his 4 studio albums, and his soundtrack works from Batman Forever and Space Jam. Yet, ther songs here are just worked out her very well, with most of the songs of those records really reflected quite well. The collection does include some remarkable pop songs here including hits like Prayer For The Dying, Seal's breakthrough hit Crazy, Waiting For You, his dynamic cover of Steve Miller's Fly Like An Eagle, and his latest Grammy-nominated song Love's Devine.

Yet, with the goodsides with this record, there are a few downsides with this record. One of them is that the album does overlook a few songs,including This Could Be Heaven, which was featured in the Nicholas Cage movie, A Family Man. Another downside is that the cover of the album is an exact duplicate from Seal's 1994 second self-titled album, which to some might be a little bit confusing to some people.

All in all, Seal's Best of 1991-2004 is a very well put greatest hits album. While some may seem more interested in the deluxe version with the acoustic recordings as well, the single disc version fairs much better simply by itself not just in price, but in the feel of Seal's passionate music. Hopefully, if you buy this record, you'll feel the same way.

Album cover: C-

Remastering: A-

Collection of songs: A-

Overall enjoyment: B+

This is my first DVD-Audio title, I only bought it out of interest to sample the format on my new DVD-Audio player. I have all the other SEAL albums in my CD collection so I am quite familiar with his work.

Let me begin by saying I'm a complete novice with the DVD-Audio format. My low-end DVD-Audio player is connected to a video processor by HDMI which then strips out the audio and sends it to my AV decoder via toslink. In spooling up the disc for the first time I selected "Advanced Resolution Stereo" on the Acoustic album and was disappointed to see my decoder receiving a 44.1kHz signal, which is of course only CD quality (assuming 16-bit rate, although I can't be sure of this). I turned up the volume and was immediately overwhelmed by a presence of sound that I have never heard before. This was no CD quality recording, and with closed eyes I would swear it was no recording at all. It was reality, SEAL was in my listening room performing LIVE just meters in front of me. I had a tingling sensation running down my spine, the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck. And as each track came and went, the enjoyment did not diminish.

Notwithstanding the infinite talent of the artist, I can only summarize by saying that the sound quality of this format was staggering in comparison to CD. I am left wondering if there is a 96kHz 24-bit track hiding somewhere on the disc, perhaps if I hooked up the analogue outputs of my DVD-Audio player then I'd get a resolution beyond the bandwidth capability of the toslink connection? I don't know, it's only the first day of my experimentation with this format. But if I could then it would surely bring SEAL from performing live in front of me, to performing within me. Absolutely.

Then I spooled up my high-end DVD player with the same disc. The Advanced Resolution format was NOT available on the menu tree, only Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1. And it sounded like dolby digital too...and I won't elaborate any further. Suffice to say this disc belongs in a DVD-Audio player and nowhere else. And for anyone reading this review, might I suggest it should belong in your collection as well.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

I was hesitant to purchase this CD when I saw it originally released. After all, I already had the four albums, and the extra songs were covers. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Then I heard that there was going to be a deluxe version with a bonus disc of songs performed acoustically. Now THAT piqued my interest. I consider Seal to be a rare vocal talent, and an ace songwriter with a gift for empathy that few can match. The thought of hearing him without the gee-whiz production of Trevor Horn (who really does understand how to produce Seal) made me grab this the week it was released.

I was not in the least bit let down. Stripped of the glossy synths of their album counterparts, songs like "Killer," "Don't Cry" and "Prayer For The Dying" take on a stately elegance. Even Seal himself states in the liner notes that he feels acoustic is his natural setting. Having this disc in addition to the originals is like a piece of Bavarian Chocolate after a lavish meal; it's the perfect after dinner topper.

As for the "Best" disc's main course, there are a couple delights. Rescued from soundtrack obscurity are Seal's covers of Steve Miller's "Fly Like An Eagle" from "Space Jam" and Echo and The Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar" from "50 First Dates." His gentle rendition of the Bacharach/David chestnut "Walk On By" holds its own to any other well known version. I am also glad that "Human Beings" made the cut, even if I wished another song or two might have snuck from that CD into the list. (All the more reason to hang on to that vastly underrated, personal work.)

The most important thing about Seal is that he keeps a utopian world view that also maintains a pragmatists' edge. A song like "Prayer For The Dying" holds up years later, maybe taking on more weight, given the current regime's narrow world view. And when all else fails, "Crazy" and "My Vision" can still make you dance.

Best of albums are almost always a way for a record company to earn some quick bucks because the cost of producing them is practically nothing. In this case Warner Brothers adds a 2nd disk with new material, but for the price of a 2nd albumn. If you're a Seal fan you already have most of disk 1 so you'e paying a steep premium for everything else. That said, the 2nd disk is what is most disappointing. Yes, it's new versions of some great Seal songs and if you're a Seal fan you'll want them, but after comparing it to the truly accoustic Seal: The Accoustic Session, these versions seem barely "accoustic" at all. As has been the problem with some of Seal's later work, overproduction buries his talent in blanket of technically well-done, but marginally meaningful sound. What made Seal popular and famous is the passion and emotion of his voice. That should be front and center in an "accoustic" album. For whatever reasons Trevor Horn keeps complicating what should be simple and powerful.

At least get the version with the DVD audio. As I said, this release is technically well done and that's the best way to appreciate it.