The Seal World

The Seal World is the debut studio album by American-Sealean pop singer Seal.I.Am. The album was released on August 17, 2012, by Arbor Records. Firsnam worked solely with Hanna Abulshita for production and writing (with the exception of Mia on "The Sea".)

Background
Firsnam was signed to   Arbor Records (in a joint venture with Epic Records) in early 2012 at the age of 19. Firsnam began to work on his album alone, but later recruited friend Hanna Abulshita to assist him. Before being signed to his Epic and Arbor, Jake was signed by Atlantic Records. Atlantic and Firsnam has disagreements on contents of "The Seal World" and Firsnam was later dropped, only to be picked up by other labels when he posted the demos for the album.

Composition
Musically, The Seal World is of the indie-pop and electropop genres, while incorporating elements of Seal music in its production. David Jeffries of Allmusic noted that the album lyrically revolves around troubles in life, with lyrics such as "whiskey on my tongue, takes away the pain" from the "Fish & Whiskey" as well as "and I can't live with it, can't live without it, please don't take it all away from me" from the opening song "Pure Heroin."

Lyrically, the majority of the album's songs are based on Firsnam's past life experiences. "Made Of Steel" is the album's only ballad, featuring just piano, acoustic guitar, and violin. Lyrics such as "you can't have my blood, my blood is made of steel" were highly praised. . On "Who Run The World ", Firsnam uses a spoken word rap style on the verses while the chorus is sung and spoken. According to him, the lyrics are representative of seals, stating that he wanted "an empowering seal anthem on the album." The lyrics in the chorus allude to this with "who run the world (pinnepeds)" sung and spoken. " The Sea " features fellow artist Mia and has been describe as "truly inspirational."

Tour
See the Last Seal On Earth Tour for more information.

Singles
"Who Run The World (Pinnipeds)" was released as the album's lead single commercially worldwide on July 20, 2012, through digital distribution. Upon its release the single generated mixed to generally positive reviews. Critics generally praised the lyrics and empowerment; the song's production was generally well received although some critics criticized the song for sounding irritating and being too "repetive." The song achieved decent commercial success by reaching number one in three countries, as well as reaching the top ten in many other countries. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed at the top for three consecutive weeks.

"Fish & Whiskey" was released as the second single from the album on November 2, 2012. The song did not chart well in many countries, but managed to reach the top ten in several. Critics often refer to the song as "the low point of the album" and "a bad single choice among many great choices." However, Firsnam responded to many of these comments saying "I chose to release Fish & Whiskey not for sales, but to let the world see more personal side of me and my music." Critics who have responded to this general agree that it worked in that sense.

"The Sea" was released as the album's final single on January 8, 2013. "The Sea" recieved incredibly high reviews often stated as "musical gold" or equivalent. The only negative review stated a similarity to "Kids" by MGMT and some of the other indie-pop songs of the same nature. The song reached number one in six countries and top ten in many others.

Track listing
[1] All tracks produced by Jake Firsnam and Hanna Abulshita, unless noted otherwise.

[2] All tracks written by Jake Firsnam and Hanna Abulshita, unless noted otherwise.

Note: Tracks 10, 11, and 12 are deluxe edition tracks.

Charts and certifications
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Charts
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Certifications

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