The only love they'll find is paradise.

February 26, 2018 9:53 PM

English singer Seal sort of burst onto the scene in 1991 with the ZTT label and Trevor Horn produced album Seal. Side A: The Beginning [video], Deep Water, Crazy [video}, Killer, Whirlpool
No this isn't the album with Kiss From A Rose On it.

Side B: Future Love Paradise [video], Wild, Show Me, Violet

posted by hippybear (16 comments total)

In 1991, the lyric "We're never gonna survive, unless we get a little crazy" was the most comforting/inspirational for me at the time. It was a time.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:26 PM on February 26, 2018 [8 favorites]

In 1991, the lyric "We're never gonna survive, unless we get a little crazy" was the most comforting/inspirational for me at the time. It was a time.
Ugh, yes to this.

Also, this is a bit weird and obscure. In the early 90's my friend's bf was in a fairly popular summer A Capella band. I wore their tape OUT. I loved every freaking song they did. And I knew the originals of everything... except one song: Future Love Paradise. I had never heard it, and never thought to ask who the original artist was. I just loved the eff out of their version. Tonight was the first time ever hearing the original. And I sang along and harmonized with it the whole time. Odd, for a first hearing. So thanks, Hippybear. You took me back 25 years. I wish I could link to their version, but there doesn't appear to be a record of it. I still have the tape somewhere, though :-D
posted by greermahoney at 11:03 PM on February 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

ZTT and Trevor Horn were always an instant harbinger of enjoyment for me, before I even ever heard the music...
posted by Samizdata at 2:54 AM on February 27, 2018

Wait, this was 27 YEARS ago? Oh my. Sorry for yelling, but keep being surprised by my age and the remoteness of my youth!
posted by stillmoving at 3:17 AM on February 27, 2018 [7 favorites]

Killer is really an Adamski track that made it to No.1 in 1990 - Seal supplied the vocals.
posted by awfurby at 3:55 AM on February 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

We've sang it a thousand times together (in my mind)
posted by Talez at 4:15 AM on February 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Great album; still my favorite of Seal’s catalog.
posted by eustacescrubb at 4:27 AM on February 27, 2018

There are so many stories I could share that include this album. It was a key part of the sound track of my life at the time. I still indulge in the occasional LOUD headphone session, especially the drum opening of Wild. It's part of the melange of so many transitions in my life, gender, cultural, continental.

There are so many memories that include this album that I should share. Needless to say, I know every note. It still brings back very specific memories: a night drive heading home from Baden to Zurich.

I've really curtailed listening to music over the last year or so. It hurts. I can't process things the same way I used to. But this is a dangerous time capsule.
posted by michswiss at 4:29 AM on February 27, 2018 [4 favorites]

One of the greatest albums of all time in my household. It has everything I could possibly want from a big, widescreen, ultra-modern pop record: crystalline engineering, a muted but powerful funk, dusky melodies, and a bottomless melancholy. “Deep Water” is the real cornerstone, a multi-movement neo-soul pop suite unlike any other. I still use it to test sound systems. And it’s the only album to have both Tackhead and Wendy & Lisa.
posted by mykescipark at 6:51 AM on February 27, 2018

But if only you could see them
You would know from their faces
There were kings and queens
Followed by princes and princesses
There were future power people
From the loved to the loveless
Shining a light 'cause they wanted it seen
posted by mcstayinskool at 6:54 AM on February 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

Oh man, this album. I was introduced to it by my roommate's brother, ran out and bought my own CD, and played it basically nonstop. I loved it so much - still do. It's such a shame that Seal somehow became a torchsong crooner, because he used to have edge. A few years after Kiss From a Rose came out I was flipping channels and saw him singing the soundtrack live to a figure skating exhibition - seriously, he was the background soundtrack - and it was so deeply disappointing. He was so much more than Kiss From a Rose. But once he married Heidi Klum and got a couple of ballads out, that seemed to be all anyone wanted to hear from him.

Hippybear, thank you again for this trip down memory lane. I stopped listening to whole albums a long time ago and man, it's time to pick that back up. Can't wait to see who you will highlight next...
posted by widdershins at 7:07 AM on February 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm still kind of surprised that Crazy was Seal's breakthrough track...
posted by elsietheeel at 7:08 AM on February 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Great album, still listen to it. My buddy Ben and I used to drive around in his dad's massive Ford Scorpio company car and play this - a lot. Happy memories.
posted by bookbook at 8:50 AM on February 27, 2018

Hmm. Seal.

I was the sidekick on a late evening music show on a city radio station, ostensibly as the gadget guy but the presenter and I had some good chemistry so I ended up sitting in on whole shows after a while. We pranked each other a bit, the off-mic stuff usually being unbroadcastable. This time, I'd been singing along to "Saving All My Love" as "Shaving Off My Muff For Yooooou", and got good daggers from the presenter as the song finished. Behave, Devonian.

"Next up, Seal and Fly Like An Eagle..." don't-you-dare glance to me across the desk, but oh no, they've left a beat...

"Must be a pretty big fly", I said.

Another beat. Presenter corpsed, miscued the track, was actually throwing log sheets at me when the station boss walked in (I think the only evening visit they ever made) and chewed us both out for unprofessionalism. Given what we were being paid, it barely counted as a professional gig anyway...

Took me a little while to be forgiven, and Seal was at fault.

(However, live wireless is the very best thing in the world to be allowed to do, so I've forgiven him.)
posted by Devonian at 9:02 AM on February 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Trevor Horn, huh. I would never have guessed!
posted by supermedusa at 9:11 AM on February 27, 2018

For whatever bizarre reasons Future Love Paradise and Crazy are possibly the only songs I would ever try at a public bar karaoke - and possibly nail even without screen prompts. That and maybe Jane's Addiction's Mountain Sized.
posted by loquacious at 3:13 PM on February 27, 2018