Human Being

Can 3 albums in a row be brilliant? 👍With Seal it’s happened again. 🎼Another stunner, as Seal and Trevor just keep rolling along. Although not as masterful as 1 and 2, it’s still near perfection. 💎

Timeless, Seal and Trevor horn at their best.

Definitely my favorite Seal album. Where his first two sometimes left me feeling a little short changed or empty, this one has one song after the other taking me in different directions sonically, but with so much depth in each one. It seems like a lot of people consider this his darkest album, but if you listen more closely, you may find you've been lifted out of those depths on a sonic wave. At least that's how it feels to me. I think he has to take us that far down to reach the heights he manages here.

Moody, lush, deep. His best album and a top 50 album of all time, in my opinion.

This album was panned by critics because of the dark moody feel it has. While it's a lot different from his previous 2 albums I have to say this is Seal's best album to date. Not that I hated his later material but this is an album that's hard to top. If not his best, it's also Seal's most personal album. Seal is a great songwriter and you can tell by listening to his lyrics. They deal with death, pain, suffering, broken relationships, and also learning from mistakes. Seal's vocals as always stand out. He's one of my all time favorite singers and songwriters. My favorite tracks on here have got to be the opening track, "Human Being" (which is supposedly written about the deaths of 2pac and Biggie), the mellow "state of grace" and also "When A Man is Wrong" "Lost My Faith" etc. This is a great album to listen to all the way through. It also ends pretty nicely with the "Human Being Reprise". Listening to that always makes me feel like that the credits of a movie about me are coming and that I move on to the future. This is why I disagree with music critics a lot. They seem to compare this to his previous work. I look at it as a stand alone album and it works as one. This album is a masterpiece. The beautiful instruments, Seal's vocals, and songwriting, work perfectly. Even if you're not a Seal fan you won't be disappointed by this album so I really do recomend it.

Dig this one out again or, if you've never checked it out, give a listen! IMHO, Human Beings (a tribute to the tragically slain Tupak Shakir and Notorious B.I.G.) and Lost My Faith are two exceptional tracks that everyone should hear.

This is far & away Seal's BEST album. It's a crime that it's so underrated.

This was one of the most unexpectedly affecting--and infectious albums of 1998. Rarely have I worn a CD bare to scratches, let alone repeatedly listened to the WHOLE THING...Seal's 'POP' venture that exploded with the "Kiss from a Rose"/Batman juggernaut blinded many, MYSELF at least, and I dismissed him as becoming a studio-shaped sort of pre-American Idol rather than a vital, raw voice, powerful, unique--here, lifted to the most angelic heights with an orchestral score so lush that it perfectly cradles--never overpowers his vocals. The emotion in each song-- and, most impressively, the sheer arc of the album (you FEEL his journey, with even more clarity than, say Lauryn Hill--not that he is any better) is staggering. Of particular excellence are the powerful opening track, the stirring State of Grace, the devastatingly beautiful Just Like You Said, Lost My Faith, and Love Still Remains...and how he uses the sum of the entire album to revisit the titular 'hymn' in track 12 is offbeat, surprising, a bit avant garde... finally brilliant. It may draw tears on a drizzly morning commute. It is a buried treasure, and he has since not dug to depths like this (his hit single "Crazy," perhaps hinted at his ability to meld pop and a deft sort of inner-turmoil, though in a cursory sense). HUMAN BEING is the real thing. Buy it. Keep it a secret. It changed the way I listen to albums now, to be most blunt. Its fragility and nuance and craftsmanship are something to be cherished...and I hope that he can find a way back to what he did here.... ~IS