Seal Coming To Fox Theater, Presale Begins At 10

We here at HAD, despite the "Kiss From A Rose" haters, make no secret that we're huge fans of Seal. We've dug the guy since day one: he has a fantastic set of pipes, and he manages to exist firmly in his own genre while at the same time riding somewhere near the mainstream. Granted, we didn't love his last self composed record System all that much, but we're definitely liking his motown covers record Soul quite a bit.

Point being, Seal is touring in support of Soul, and is bringing the show to the Fox Theater in Oakland on May 5th. There's a presale beginning, well, now, so head on over and see what you can come up with. The password is "510".

Seal Spring 2009 Dates
31-Mar Minneapolis, MN Orpheum
01-Apr Chicago, IL Opera House
03-Apr Windsor, ON Casino Windsor
04-Apr Toronto, ON Massey Hall
06-Apr Boston, MA Orpheum
08-Apr Upper Darby, PA Tower Theater
10-Apr Mashantucket, CT Foxwoods
11-Apr Atlantic City, NJ Borgata
15-Apr Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
16-Apr New York, NY Radio City Music Hall
18-Apr Atlanta, GA Chastain Park Amphitheatre
19-Apr St. Petersburg, FL Mahaffey Theater
22-Apr Miami, FL The Fillmore
24-Apr Biloxi, MS Beau Rivage Resort
25-Apr Houston, TX Verizon
28-Apr Austin, TX Bass Concert Hall
29-Apr Dallas, TX Nokia Theatre
01-May Albuquerque, NM Sandia Casino
03-May Valley Center, CA Valley View Casino
05-May Oakland, CA Fox Theater
06-May Los Angeles, CA Nokia Theater

Seal Debuts New Videos, New Record Soul On The Way

Okay, see, here's the thing: we know you probably think it's not cool to like Seal. You probably hear his name and automatically go into convulsions as you hear the intro for "Kiss From A Rose" over and over and over. But here's the thing: the man is badass. He has a killer voice, he's an amazing songwriter, and he's released a string of fantastic albums. He's also married to Heidi Klum, which has its merits, but this is a music blog, so we'll keep things clean.

Point being: we've been listening to Seal since 1991, and the man continues to deliver. His last record System went a tad too far into techno territory for us, whereas 2003's Seal IV really delivered an R&B swagger that both surprised and delighted. Given that, we're pretty psyched to hear that his next record will be a cover of R&B classics entitled Soul. The record drops November 11th (next Tuesday), and a couple of videos have made their way to the web.

The first (Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long") can be seen above, while you can also catch another (Sam Cooke's totally-appropriate-for-election-day "A Change Is Gonna Come") over at YouTube.

Okay, chill out: we know where you're going with this. R&B classics, covers are bullshit, sacrilege, Seal's a sellout, etc. etc. Well, you can be a hater all you want. While you're on that track, put this in your pipe and smoke it: We didn't really "get" Hendrix until we heard Seal cover "The Wind Cries Mary". Let the hating commence.