This column marks the 54th anniversary of my music review column. During my graduate year at Northwestern University, I took a course on reporting the arts, which included seeing a workshop version of “Grease” and a ballet. So, when I went to work for Paddock Publications’ The Herald newspapers in Chicago’s northwest suburbs after graduation, I took my deep interest in pop music to my editor and my first weekly music review column, then called “Playback,” ran on Feb. 11, 1972. The column covered vinyl records by Johnny Mathis (“You’ve Got a Friend”) and Paul McCartney and Wings (“Wild Life”).

The column ran for five years in Illinois, before I moved to Camden, Maine and found it a new home at The Camden Herald in 1977. It moved with me to The Courier-Gazette in Rockland, Maine in 1979 and mostly lasted through my 29 years with the newspaper, before jumping to the Internet, where its current homes are at www.LinkedIn.com and www.penbaypilot.com in the blog section.

Seal: Purpose: Celebrating 30 Years of the Classic Albums Seal I and Seal II (Mercury Studios/Universal, Blu-ray, NR, 76 min. + CD). Technically, the title is incorrect, as Seal’s first two albums were both called “Seal.” However, the second became known as “Seal II” to distinguish it from the first. The concert was recorded in 2024 at The Venetian hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

Of the 10 songs, five are from his 1991 debut album, including the singles “Crazy,” “The Beginning,” “Future Love Paradise” and “Killer” and the non-single “Deep Water,” while three are from his 1994 second album, including the singles “Prayer for the Dying” and “Kiss from a Rose,” and the non-single “Bring It Open.” “Kiss from a Rose” won a Grammy Award.

The concert’s two encores are “Get It Together” and “Love’s Divine,” both from his fourth album, “Seal IV” (2009).

Seal’s second album was when he first worked with Grammy Award-winning producer, musician and songwriter Trevor Horn (Yes, LeAnn Rimes, Belle and Sebastian), who here joins Seal’s six-piece band as bassist and music director.

Seal says of Horn, “He is this mentor that I’ve spent the last 34 years looking up to. He knows me as an artist better than anyone else. Having him on tour caused me to bring a level of professionalism and discipline that I hadn’t had before.”

The Blu-ray concert is directed by Keirda Bahruth (“Hardcore Devo,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Bob and the Monster”) and includes five interview segments with Seal and two with Horn. In one, Seal reminisces about his first appearance on the BBC’s “Top of The Pops” television show in 1990. Back then, Horn’s wife and business partner candidly told Seal that his performance was good but it did not connect.

That was a lesson well earned, as Seal definitely connects with his audience during this show. It is an audience whose members Bahruth often shows singing along to every song. There is mass audience singing during “Kiss from a Rose” and “Love’s Divine.”

The concert opens on a high note with “Crazy,” which includes two drum breaks by Sylvester “Earl” Harvin. Then there is a nice keyboard start by Benjamin “Jamie” Muhoberac to “The Beginning.” “Future Love Paradise” picks up the pace, before an excellent “Bring It On.”

“Prayer for the Dying” has the wonderful line: “They never leave us.” During the propulsive “Killer,” another highlight, Seal certainly connects with the audience as he walks into the crowd, singing directly to several of its members. Bahruth uses a split screen for the second half of the song. Seal continues to sing from within the crowd on “Kiss from a Rose,” before returning to the stage as the song winds down.

The encore “Get It Together” starts slowly, but then turns upbeat, as Seal again goes into the audience, and even autographs an album. For the closing “Love’s Divine,” Seal goes even deeper into the crowd, finishing up a very satisfying show. Grade: A

Zerobaseone: Re-Flow, Special Limited Album (kt genie music/WakeOne, CD single plus). Sadly – no, devastatingly – this is the final CD offering from the full nine-member Zerobaseone, the great K-Pop group formed from the MNET survival show “Boys Planet” 2.5 years ago. The group was always supposed to be a temporary group, but no one could have predicted how successful they would be – six albums that each sold more than a million copies, five times on the first day – and how beloved they would be by Zerose, their fans.

Despite the group members being represented by six different agencies, there was hope and prayers that the group would become a permanent one. Then in January, YH Entertainment of China, which represents group members Zhang Hao, Ricky, Kim Gyu-vin and Han Yu-jin, announced it was pulling its four members back and they would embark on different ventures.

Earlier this month, there was some solace as members Seok Matthew and Park Gun-wook signed with WakeOne and it was announced Zerobaseone would continue as a quintet with Sung Han-bin, Kim Ji-woong, Seok Matthew, Kim Tae-rae and Park Gun-wook continuing under the Zerobaseone name, even though Han-bin and Ji-woong will stay with THE L1VE and Nest Management respectively.

The bad news is there are only three songs on this limited album, but the good news is all three rank among ZB1’s best work. Each song had a music video (catch them on YouTube), with all three designed for the fans, and two of the three drawing my tears.

“Running to Future” is a wonderful ballad that talks about while this chapter may be ending, the love for the fans will continue in any future projects. The MV is like a video scrapbook, touching on their previous music videos and, as always, featuring beautiful singing, especially by Ji-woong and Tae-rae with his high notes. There is an invisible character – representing the fans? – who reappears in the third video.

The second song is the lovely animated “Roses,” which addresses the fandom directly. It is more upbeat than sad. The third, and final, song is “Lovepocalypse,” with one of their best choruses. The video features concert snippets that just remind how much we loved the members. One beautifully edited shot has a blue rose turn into a ZB1 light-stick, held by a concert crowd member. The MV stops to have the band say how much the members love their fans – a lovely moment – but then somewhat cruelly ends with an epilogue of “Have you missed us?” It is followed by a promise to come see the fans, a promise we now know to be false.

The nine-member, classic Zerobaseone, just finished two concerts in Japan, with Ji-woong breaking down in tears during the closing goodbyes to the crowd, and will only have three more concerts in Seoul March 13-15.

The special limited album came with a necklace, with three pendants: a leaf, a heart and a tiny light-stick. There also are a message key from one of the members (I got Gun-wook), a photo card (Tae-rae), a Polaroid (Gun-wook), a pack of 30 square photos (3 of each member and 3 of the group) and a group warranty card (“valid thru forever”). Grade: CD A