Seal did an album of standards in 2017, but "Just A Ghost" is the first original song he recorded since 2015, when he issued his album 7. The song is a collaboration with Claptone, the DJ/producer who wears bird-like masks to conceal his identity. He says: "The deep sensuality in Seal's voice has always kept me under its spell, and of course the mystique around his persona. No doubt the stars aligned when Seal and I were working on 'Just A Ghost' - his first original material in six years. By introducing him to the deep, emotive, and powerful sound of Claptone my aim was to lead him back to his very own roots, to an electronic club-infused but soulful sound. And I needed to do that without sacrificing the strong musical identity he built for himself over the past decades."
Seal wrote the lyric, which tells a story of longing. His lover has left him for another, and now at night he sees her in the shadows, real to him, even if she's just a ghost. The story is on point for Seal, whose love songs often cross into the mystic.
"Just A Ghost" is part of Claptone's third album, Closer, which in addition to Seal, features guest vocalists Barry Manilow, Peter Bjorn and John, Mayer Hawthorne, and James Vincent McMorrow. Claptone says the album as a whole is about "The joy and sometimes the pain of being human," Adding, "It's an ode to togetherness as well as empowerment, to heartache as well as bliss. I celebrate emotions. I allow myself to get closer to human beings and be human on the quest for my soul."
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