Seal IV is doing well both in the US and, surprisingly, in the UK this week. The album is positioned at No. 3in the Billboard Top 200 charts, coming comes in behind releases from John Mayer and Hilary Duff. Anyone outside of the US can probably join me in wondering, "who?". The album has entered at No. 4 in the Official UK Charts, where it sits behind David Bowie's "Reality". something Seal surely doesn't begrudge. However, both are held from the top by Starsailor and, worryingly, faux glam-rock bilge Darkness.

Why the surprise at this strong UK position? Well, Seal's new material has had very little publicity in the UK. To our knowledge there have been no TV or radio commercials, barely any airplay on stations other than Radio 2, and TV appearances on less than mainstream programming. To put it another way, friends who have bought Seal's earlier music didn't even know he had a new single and album in the stores.

This lackof awarness is reflected in the poor performance of the single "Get It Together", which peaked at No. 25 in the Official UK Top 75 and now sits at No. 47

More encouraging is the news that the "Get It Together" remixes are sitting at the top of the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play^tm chart. The chart is compiled from a sample of club playlist, so let's hope this will bring fresh blood into Seal's fold.

Thanks to Janice Carpenter for posting the Billboard Top 200 news on the Seal mailing list @ Yahoo!
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