Seal surfaces for air

After a 5-year absence that has left fans hungry for more, Seal returns with a new self-titled album. The British-born, multi-platinum selling, Grammy winning recording artist truly made his mark with past hits like “Crazy,” “Don’t Cry,” and “Kiss from a Rose.” One critic has called his new album “defiantly philanthropic” and so our guess is that fans will surely fall in love with this one, too.

It's been five years since we last heard from the Grammy winning pop star so when we caught up with him at a rehearsal studio in New York we asked, “Where have you been?”

Seal says, “Good question. Just trying to make the album as good as it can be. Admittedly it took a bit longer then I thought it would take because I actually made the record twice. I started out by producing it myself, got two years into it and in a word it wasn’t good enough basically. So I scrapped it and started again.”

It was his 1991 self titled, debut album that caused American music fans to first go “Crazy” over what one critic called “the soothing, sensual, soulful” voice of Seal.

“I’ve been really fortunate in that I came here 13 years ago to do one thing and that was to come to America as an Englishman and be successful here.”

He hit it big with his follow-up album, “Seal 1994” which earned him three Grammy’s including “Song of the Year” for “Kiss from a Rose.”

After another successful album in 1998, the singer-songwriter took a break from the spotlight. But now he’s back with his new CD, “Seal Four.” Critics are saying it may be his best work yet.

Billboard magazine writes, “Seal is talented enough to trust in a momentous melody and in his ability to convey emotion by singing… just singing.”

“I’m told by everyone, gosh you’ve been away for such a long time and we’ve missed you and nice things like that,” says Seal. “So I guess I’m going to have to speed up my output.”

Seal’s much anticipated concert tour begins in November but we got him first this morning as he rocks the plaza.

“When you bring out a new record and you do TV, like the Today show,” he says, “there’s a certain kind of welcoming feeling that people give you — it’s the big time, it’s the big league and so how can you not look forward to doing that?”

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