At a hardcore show last year, I met a guy who plays in Seal's touring band, and I made him tell me a bunch of Seal stories. I walked away from that conversation like "damn, Seal sounds cool as hell." I'm trying to keep that version of Seal in my head right now, but it's hard. Unfortunately, that Seal now must compete with the nightmarish image of Mountain Dew's Super Bowl commercial, in which Seal's head is CGI-grafted onto an actual seal. It was some truly repulsive body-horror shit, but hopefully the real flesh-and-blood cool-guy version of Seal got a nice check out of it.
In any case, Seal is now doing his best to take advantage of any momentum that the Mountain Dew commercial might've granted him. Last year, Seal reunited with '80s and '90s super-producer Trevor Horn, who worked on most of Seal's biggest records. On Horn's all-covers album Echoes – Ancient & Modern, Seal sang a rendition of Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out." Seal has mostly done covers in the past year, including a few Christmas songs and a standards album. Today, he releases a new track that he recorded with Horn. It's Seal's first new single since his 2015 album 7.
Seal's new song "All I Need Is Now" is a sleek and majestic howler that would've probably gotten big VH-1 play if it had come out in 1992. It's got a gleaming synth riff, glam-rock shuffle-drums, and a reliably huge vocal from Seal. Together, Seal and Horn have also recorded a new version of "Kiss From A Rose," the Horn-produced '90s mega-hit that remains Seal's signature song. (It's what he was singing in that Mountain Dew commercial.) Just last year, Seal shared a previously unreleased alternate version of "Kiss From A Rose," but this isn't that. Instead, it's a newly re-recorded take, and it's literally called "Kiss From A Rose (Seal's Version)." The song still kicks ass, and Seal's voice still sounds spectacular. Hear both tracks below.
Read our We've Got A File On You interview with Seal here.
