Even \u201cCrazy,\u201d the album\u2019s biggest single, is exquisitely laid back, weaving trance synths, wakka-wakka guitar, and a new jack swing-influenced beat into a billowing backdrop for Seal at his bluesiest. The restraint is no mean feat, given that the song was inspired by nothing less than the falling of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square massacre, two years before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, Seal\u2019s lyrical gifts were not necessarily up to such grandiose themes. The chorus of \u201cCrazy\u201d\u2014\u201cWe\u2019re never gonna survive unless\/We get a little crazy\u201d\u2014was meant to capture the yearning for freedom that triggered the world-historical events of 1989, yet it\u2019s essentially \u201cYOLO\u201d stretched out over 17 syllables. Seal\u2019s frequent paeans to freedom were never exactly \u201cRedemption Song,\u201d and sometimes they could be asinine, even offensive. (From \u201cCrazy\u201d: \u201cCrazy yellow people walking through my head\/One of them\u2019s got a gun, to shoot the other one\/And yet together they were friends at school.\u201d) Even at their most affecting, Seal\u2019s lyrics often don\u2019t stand up under close inspection. \u201cShow me the way to solve your problems and I\u2019ll be there,\u201d he pleads on \u201cShow Me\u201d\u2014an empathetic sentiment, perhaps, but hardly the most proactive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Posted from: https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/reviews\/albums\/seal-seal\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n