I'm fully aware that Seth is a solo artist

Then you ought to have been aware that it was the band Equation that signed to Warner and that this particular Lakeperson, as a solo artist, signed to EMI much later.

I have never hear anyone complain about Warner as a label. Why would they? It's a label, not in itself an arbiter of musical direction. As Ruth says, it did no harm whatsoever as a staging post in Eliza Carthy's career. Colin Irwin reported in In Search Of Albion that Equation suffered after they sold out. If that means people criticised them because the quality of their music slipped off the lower end of the scale, he was of course right. Venues just stopped booking them. Not that I've read In Search Of . . . myself. That would be a bit like getting political analysis and social commentary from the Daily Mail. Ah, but you do . . .