Seal the Deal!

Seal the Deal! is a limited-edition EP of songs recorded during the sessions for Bart Davenport's disappointing Maroon Cocoon album. Of the five tracks, two of them suffer from the same malady that sank the album. The acoustic version of the Three O'Clock's "Jet Fighter" and the sparse ballad "Desert Flower" sound like demos in search of arrangements. They're nice but that's all. The rest of the album is another story though. "Want Some," one of the better songs from the record, is given a slightly more powerful backing with gentle drums and fuzz bass, which boosts it from a decent song to a really good one. It makes you wish Davenport had done the same with the rest of the album. The other two tracks are pretty silly but have some life to them: "The Finest Girl in America" is a rocked-out jam with sax and guitar solos over a cheesy drum machine and Davenport strutting behind the mike like a sleepy Mick Jagger, and "Eye in the Sky" is indeed a cover of the Alan Parsons Project's 1982 hit. Davenport plays it pretty straight and his honest and lovely vocals help to pull it off as does the fact that Parsons composed a fine melody. The EP doesn't wipe away the lackluster memories of the album that came before it, but it does help to remind Davenport fans that he is capable of making inventive and unique music.