Seals & Crofts - Summer Breeze

If there's one thing i really like doing, it's hinting that Seals & Crofts might not be my cup of tea. I drink coffee.

The reason i don't like them is complicated (what isn't, coming from me?); i adore their music, but i don't care about their words. Honestly, if they had a boxed set of all their albums without vocals i'd be completely happy.  Karaoke/Muzak versions of their entire catalogue? Sign me up.

It's not a religious thing, or a thematic thing, or a hard vs. soft rock thing, or even the timbre their voices. I simply don't want to hear James Seals' poetry. I want to hear the combined compositional forces of Seals, Crofts, and Paich (Marty or his son David) make weird baroque folk with horns, strings, and anachronistically overdriven electric guitar. Rock orchestras are awesome.

I'm listening to the Summer Breeze album tonight, but the elephant in the room is always their later album Unborn Child. It's a sensitive subject, so i'll be neutrally tactful. Count: There is nothing offensive about that song, and the notion that their career took a nose dive for producing it is ludicrous. Pointercount: In the larger scheme of actual reality their viewpoint is idyllic and naive, but it's certainly not insulting or misogynistic like so many other arguments from that side of the debate. Let's agree that it's a Seals & Crofts song, and my argument is that none of their lovely compositions should have lyrics.

So, to sum up. I don't hate Seals & Crofts, but i wish they didn't sing so much. Or, at all. Clear as mud?

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