Metro Pulse/Platters

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This Week: a pick from the West Coast underground and Seal returns

L.A. Symphony
The End is Now (Basement Records/Gotee Records)

Cali-based rap collective L.A. Symphony has had a rough go of it. After years of creating a buzz in the underground West Coast rhyme scene, in 1999 the crew found a home at then-promising new label Squint Records.

Squint made huge ripples in the music industry with its first release, a self-titled beauty from Sixpence None the Richer. You still probably have Kiss Me stuck in your head to this day. Squint also gave modern rock radio its first look at Chevelle, with the promising, but not as successful, Point 1.

L.A. Symphony was scheduled as the label's next major release. Unfortunately, as so often happens, the label encountered financial difficulties. Buyouts and contract limbo followed. To make a long story short, L.A. Symphony soon found its album shelved and itself with no label.

Fast forward to the present. After a series of solo albums and an EP last year, L.A. Symphony is back on a label with a new album. And all the red tape seems to have strengthened the group for the better.

L.A. Symph has long been known for infectious party jams and spirited banter. There's still plenty of that on The End is Now, especially on the wit-laced title-track and the playful "187 on the Dancefloor," a groove reminiscent of N.W.A.'s "If It Ain't Ruff."

But the group's maturity shines through elsewhere. Songs like "Charlie Brown," "Gonna Be Alright," and "Wonderful" acknowledge the disparity between dreams and reality. The group has seen its share of problems ("Man, we go where every other band go/ And walk away with no money in the hand though/ There's only so much a black man can handle"), but acknowledges that tomorrow will be a brighter day.

In an age where mainstream rap is still dominated by verbal shootouts and bad-boy posturing, The End is Now is a refreshing record balancing the good times and the bad.

—Lloyd Babbit

Seal
SEAL IV (Warner)

Seal is back and he has managed to avoid doing any disservice to his reputation. He dared a bit and still came up A-OK on most of the tracks off his latest release, SEAL IV. If one was to graph Seal's musical input since his debut album, one can posit that he is on the other side of his plateau. Unquestionably, the apex of his career so far is Human Being. As a total package, Human Being exudes Seal's musical essence. Seal's best songs are all about texture. As Miles Davis musically portrayed color on his album Aura, so does Seal provide a unique texture to the majority of his impressive songs. An ample dose of this essence is evident on SEAL IV—some songs are delicate and smooth as silk, others are comfortable like corduroy, while others approximate the coarseness of denim. All told, this release, though not stellar, is nonetheless a solid musical statement.

Lyrically, SEAL IV is largely a declaration of love, peace and harmony. By starting out with the declaratory "Get It Together," Seal debuts his latest release with a big smile. The great lyrical one-liner "...if you're rolling to the left, don't forget I'm on the right..." perfectly serves as the "jingle" for this amicable song. Brought to a crescendo by a rousing vocal chorus and thereafter punctuated by a basic, strumming acoustic guitar, "Get It Together" works well as an anthem that promotes love, peace, and harmony. "Love's Divine" follows in the vein of "Get it Together," but it does so at an even more comforting level. This song, so very well, speaks of an epiphany about the value of love.

Seal also explores his brash side on IV's "Waiting For You" and "Let Me Roll." Arguably, he falters on the former and squeezes out a good song on the latter. On "Let Me Roll," Seal gets "dirty," in that his vocal delivery and lyrical content seem to be inflected with contemporary expressive conventions and latter-day colloquialisms.

Seal is, respectively, at his most familiar and at his most daring on the songs "Touch" and "Where There's Gold." "Touch" is a pleasantly ethereal song that acoustically represents its title and subject matter very well. On "Where There's Gold," Seal embraces a Caribbean flavor and comes off with a good song that, leaves you wondering how much he was spurred along by Ms. Dynamite's preceding success.

Seal leaves off his fourth release with a song that is very emblematic of his self and another that demonstrates that he got too comfortable with himself. "Heavenly" is a masterful tapestry of musical moods, acoustic embroideries, and harmonic embellishments. "Tinsel Town," on the other hand, is an indolently delivered, unremarkable song.

SEAL IV might require a bit of fluffing on some songs but once you rest your ear on it, you will largely come away with a pleasant experience. An experience that, as it concerns Seal himself, might have unduly taxed his creative juices. But you'll like how it feels.

—Ekem Amonoo Lartson