Sade - Soldier of Love

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"You could have let me love anyone, but I only wanted you. So why did you make me cry? Why didn't you come get me one last time?" implores Sade on polished urban pop serenade "The Moon and the Sky".

Sade

It's a yearning acoustic soul ballad about breaking up that drifts along to a jazzy guitar groove reminiscent of Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles. Right, so after a decade on sabbatical it's business as usual for pop music's smooth operator, then?

Hardly. "I only make records when I feel I have something to say. I'm not interested in releasing music just for the sake of selling something. Sade is not a brand" cautions the Nigerian-born British songbird about her first album in a decade. Granted, these are noble sentiments in our late capitalist age of media hype and instant star spin, but what exactly does the smooth urban pop icon have to say now she's turned 50?

Well, first single "Soldier of Love" is a haunting meditation on the spiritually, financially and artistically bankrupt age we live in that swings to an hypnotic brew of tribal rock rhythms and broken trip-hop textures last heard on Massive Attack's Blue Lines. Don't fret. Sade is a subtle songbird. "It's the wild wild west, I'm doing my best. I'm at the borderline of my faith. I'm at the hinterland of my devotion. I'm in the front line of this battle of mine. But I'm still alive" she sings, eschewing any soap box sentiments for a sincere hymn to patience, perserverance and self-preservation.

Sade's signature quiet storm seduction (cf. "Diamond Life" and "Sweetest Taboo") has evolved since 2000's Lover's Rock. Her candlelit come-on now finds expression in a sublime array of electro-acoustic soul pop settings that segue between stark piano ballad torch songs about paradise lost ("Morning Bird") and quirky pop reggae celebrations of falling in love ("Babyfather") to country-jazzy and symphonic soul kissed daydreams about the desire to change the world one small step at a time ("Long Hard Road", "Be That Easy").

 
 
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(Comments may be edited or deleted at the Channel24 editors’ discretion)
Barry Groenewald 2/24/2010 10:02 AM
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You can hear Sade makes albums on her terms - she did not pander to any of the new trends. She used the same band she used on previous albums and you can hear the end product in the polished sound. Long Hard Road is a good song - I would have liked her to have put some more tracks on the album though, all in all very good.
non-conformist 2/11/2010 8:14 AM
A real gem of an album and a breath of fresh air in today's stale industry.
Skye 2/9/2010 6:31 AM
I wish she will come to SA already!
SIMON ZULU 2/8/2010 11:09 PM
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FANTASTIC BALLARD+CLOSE TO STANDARDS
Judge Dread 2/8/2010 12:45 PM
Hmm.... " Have always loved Sade ".
Papa 2/8/2010 10:47 AM
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So when Sade going to grace our shore with her sublime presence????
Judge Dread 2/8/2010 10:04 AM
Have always loves Sad.Still dreaming of seeing her perform in Central Park, New York.
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Label
Sony Music
Genre
R&B/Soul/Hip Hop
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Kalahari
 
Soldier of Love