Multiplatinum selling, Grammy winning, critically acclaimed Seal unveils his first greatest hits collection with Seal Best 1991-2004. But there's even more-along with the single-CD edition, with original album versions of 12 of his hits and best-loved tracks plus a cover song newly recorded by Seal ("Walk on By"), a double-CD package adds a disc of newly recorded acoustic versions of nine of those cuts (and four others). For fans of the pop, dance, urban and adult contemporary, Seal Best 1991-2004 is the quintessential Seal experience.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 into Best: 1991-2004 where 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 from Seal IV such 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 and Burt Bacharach's "Walk on By," sidestepping any instinct to belt, and the help he gets from Mikey Dread on Echo & the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar" settles the song into a snazzified reggae-pop celebration. (Also included is Seal's soaring cover of Steve 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
