Seal

Dreadlocked and strikingly tall, with what look like ritual scars marking each of his cheeks, Seal, a singer-songwriter of Nigerian-Brazilian descent from Great Britain, possesses a unique, enigmatic charisma that many blander performers would sell their vanilla souls for. The first half of Seal, an in-studio acoustic mini-concert, can’t help but capture a good deal of the artist’s presence. It refreshingly puts most of its focus on Seal’s very real talents. His songs, which draw on world music, folk, funk, and progressive pop, are just as exciting and dramatic in these spare settings as they are on his lavishly produced, sonically maximalist eponymous debut album of last year, which hit big in Britain but has so far achieved only modest success here. The latter part of the video compiles four clips, of which only ”Crazy,” with its revolving camera and multiple images of Seal creating a dizzying kaleidoscopic feel, fully succeeds. The others are unfortunately saddled with cheesy sci-fi-derived effects that are gratuitous for a performer with Seal’s natural pull. B