Seal's band taking this quite literally with an almost note perfect recreation of Life's What You Make It by Talk Talk, performed at the free One Philly: Unity Concert For America in Philadelphia on 4th July 2026.
I've seen a lot of online comments about whether artists should attempt to cover Talk Talk at all, on the basis that the songs are perfect to begin with, others arguing that it's another way to bring a classic artist or band to attention of a new generation and/or wider audience.
I'd definitely go with the latter. I've heard my fair share of dodgy songs that, on discovering that they are cover versions, have tempted me to track down the original, to my benefit and education.
Seal delivers a typically strong vocal and the band - including Philly-born Gail Ann Dorsey on bass - is tight, though the percussion is so note perfect that I can't believe that it's all played by Drew McKeon, not least because it required three for Talk Talk's own live rendition: drummer Lee Harris, accompanied by Leroy Williams and Phil Reis.
And Seal's vocals, whilst on point and a good match for the music per se, never quite nail the emotional depth of Mark Hollis' performance. The latter is also a lot more animated on stage, you can feel what Mark feels when he's singing it.
Here's a prime example, Life's What You Make It by Talk Talk at the Montreux Festival on 11th July 1986. Same song, almost identical arrangement, forty years apart but oh, what a difference.
For all that, I'm glad that Seal chose to include a Talk Talk song in his set and that there were people in the audience so inspired by this that they were instantly looking up the original song.
Of course, in these days of streaming that means naff all royalties for anyone involved with the Talk Talk recording, but the band and their music remain as relevant and as thrilling now as they did all those years ago.
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