Album Review: Seal – Commitment (2010)

Seal Strikes Again…and that he sure does!

His magical raspy voice lured me into a realm I hadn’t anticipated and once there, was actually so pleased I got there. I needed it.

Loaded with a number of heartfelt ballads, built carefully with perfect vocal delivery, complete and appropriate orchestration, brilliant production and a very structured feel, the album was such a pleasant break from the noisy Dance pop and Hip Hop I am slowly trying to get myself into out of little choice. The lyrics are so earnest and the music soulful.What I’ve always loved about Seal was his amazing chord progression and how he blends into these off notes and make it so very on.

The first single off the album “Secret”, is a ‘neat’ and ‘beautiful’ song that literally grabs you at the first note. I used the word ‘neat’ here as it’s just that from the first note. Its not noisy, its build up, its feel, chord progression, delivery is so well packaged. Peaceful and well produced, this song is my favorite off the album and is one of the few ones that as a guitarist and crooner myself, I could immediately imagine working into as part of my repertoire!!!

But there are other tracks too which bring out Seal in ways I could feel a sense of him really trying to bring out the best of himself which he so aptly sings about in the track “The Best of Me”. “You Get Me”, “Silence”. “Letting Go” or “All for Love Strong”, bring out the strongs vocals of Seal. I could feel the David Foster feel to this album where he so selflessly brings out the Artist in full glory and strength ahead of the production.

“Weight of My Mistakes” is catchy and introspective. It starts off in a way you wouldn’t expect it to build into and that’s what caught me and actually do a back-to-back listen. The lyrics were neat wherein he says: “The Weight of My Mistake, Depends On how I Feel, Don’t let it Bring you down…The weight of what I say…depends on how you feel, Don’t Let it bring you down..”

Overall you can make out what an honest and personal album this is. I read up a bit more about him post this album, and saw how the songs off this album, fit in with an ease that only a person who is in a comfortable place in life (not with the world itself, but more with himself) can do.

From a true listeners perspective, whilst not all songs immediately hit you (although many do get caught on after a few listens when you actually start picking up the meaningful lyrics), overall – you do end up having 2-3 songs which have huge potential to last long even after he has released 2-3 more albums, the way “Crazy”, “Kiss From A Rose” or “Love Divine” did.

My star rating ***