In an interview with MTV, Seal revealed how the fracture in his relationship with long-time producer, Trevor Horn, came about. "Well," say Seal "we fell out to put it bluntly". Work on the album came to an abrupt halt late last year when the two spectacularly went their separate ways, with many music news web sites fuelling speculation as to the cause - FLP included, I'm sorry to say.
Seal then teamed up with producer Stu Levine in order to get the album completed. This was followed shortly by the separation of Warner Bros Records and Seal's label ZTT, which saw Seal leave ZTT and move to Warner. It seemed now more than ever that the breach between Seal and Trevor couldn't be healed. It can as a surprise, then, when the news was announce in July this year that Seal and Trevor had put aside their differences and got back to work on the troubled album.
So what is Seal's take on the reason behind his split with Trevor?
"I think that's the thing about any working relationship or creative working relationship, if they tend to be successful, they also tend to be tempestuous. I think that's largely because you have two creative minds, personalities, working together"

A little more insight might be gleaned from the liner notes of the new album. The notes, which read as an outpouring of Seal's thoughts and life during the development of the album, include a transcription of what appears to be an argument between two people regarding the mixing of the album. It's an established fact that both Seal and Trevor are perfectionist when it comes to creating music, as can be witnessed by the little known 'premix' of Seal's first album. When asked why this version was released only to be replaced by a different mix, Seal told FLP that both Trevor and himself had an "... inability to let things go."
Perhaps this is for the better, as one could wonder if Seal's repertoire would be quite a interesting without it's intricate and fine polish.

See also: MTV News Gallery