Seal has taken the “cover” road many artists seem to take when they run out of original material. On his latest disc, Soul, he’s recorded some classic R & B songs with mixed results.
Seal has one of the great voices in modern soul music and he more than does justice to the Sam Cooke tune “A Change is Gonna Come,” the Curtis Mayfield classic “People Get Ready,” Anne Peebles’ “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” and the beautiful Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes song “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.”
Where he falls flat and sounds uninspired is on tunes like “Stand By Me,” “Knock on Wood,” “Here I Am (Come and Take Me),” a song that was ruined long ago by UB40, “It’s Alright,” which can’t compare to the Huey Lewis cover of the Mayfield tune, and James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” which probably shouldn’t be covered by anyone. I’ve always thought if you want to hear a James Brown song, listen to James Brown because no one will do it better.
Seal has always had interesting arrangements for his songs, but on many of these tunes he doesn’t stray too far away from the original. While this formula will work for some of his fans and some fans of soul music, it doesn’t work for me.
30 Days Out 