Trevor Horn & Seal – “Steppin’ Out” (Joe Jackson Cover)

Veteran producer Trevor Horn is rolling out Echoes – Ancient & Modern, a new covers album pairing Horn with an array of his favorite singers. It’s how we ended up with Tori Amos covering Kendrick Lamar, and it also includes a reunion between Horn and Seal. Horn worked on a bunch of the music from Seal’s era of ’90s superstardom, including “Kiss From A Rose.” Now he’s recruited his old pal to sing a cover of Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out.”

Horn shared this statement on the cover:

The Joe Jackson original is like stepping out into the fast-moving neon-lit edginess of New York after you’ve got high. With Seal I thought it should be like stepping out into California where it’s lush, comfortable and much less speedy. I was thinking of “The Girl from Ipanema.” I love that record. I was aiming for carefree contemporary easy listening with a little something else, basically the ineffable cool of Seal.

Below, hear Horn and Seal’s “Steppin’ Out” cover and check out a behind-the-scenes video with Horn.

Echoes – Ancient & Modern is out 12/1 on Deutsche Grammophon. Coincidentally, today is the 20th anniversary of Belle & Sebastian’s Horn-produced classic Dear Catastrophe Waitress.