Best: 1991-2004
It's fair to assume that if you're a Seal fan, you prefer your pop shot through with substance. Using that as a guiding principle, you'll want to glide right intoBest: 1991-2004where you will encounter, throughout two discs and 27 songs, scarcely a second of musical fluff. All the expected goosebump-raisers come on disc one--"Don't Cry" follows "Prayer for the Dying" follows "Kiss from a Rose" follows "Crazy"--and they're interspersed with deeper cuts fromSeal IVsuch as "Get It Together" and "Loves Divine" as well as a couple of covers that, in a lesser vocalist's hands, might have been catastrophic. Seal plays it subtle and sweet andBurt Bacharach's "Walk on By," sidestepping any instinct to belt, and the help he gets fromMikey DreadonEcho & the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar" settles the song into a snazzified reggae-pop celebration. (Also included is Seal's soaring cover ofSteve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle," which proved his prowess as a cover artist with its chart success). Though "best" collections aren't normally upheld for their surprise elements--nobody likes a package that challenges with armloads of new stuff--disc two pulls off a neat stunt. It's a complete acoustic album, again encompassing the major radio hits but stretching to include tracks like the impossibly tender "Touch" and the meltingly gorgeous "Colour." Their unplugged presentation, with the artist on guitar, sets an up-close-and-personal tone that suits Seal. More to the point, it suits his fans, who'll take all the intimacy with the singer-slash-heartthrob they can get. --Tammy La Gorce