Sade - Soldier of Love

http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/11/24/PH2009112403079.jpg

Feb. 8th

No leaks yet as far as I can tell. Great cover.

xcited

on board

cosign. can't wait.

hell yes

Just now saw the cover. Veddy nice.

Wow, that is a great cover (mysterious, sexy, epic).

hell yes

Superb cover of this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZpgHXCJ1vGM/SYTRVhDn-HI/AAAAAAAAALU/HtVO2WWg5bE/s320/soldier.jpg

Yeah, looking forward to this.

wistful. mayan. sade.

or i dunno, maybe they have those things in nigeria too.

anyway, looking forward muchly.

Me too, I wonder if she'll embrace newer R&B production or do something like her previous albums. Not that she has ever been strictly R&B.

OMG I AM BEYOND EXCITED.

this album is going to be like a surprise holiday in february

http://pinboardblog.com/2009/12/07/sades-first-single-off-new-album-is-solider-of-love-news/

hyyyyped

http://pinboard.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/11151_189724627881_9994477881_3126548_7614593_n.jpg?w=420&h=420

She doesn't look any older now than she did in 1992.

she's one of those odd women who only gets more beautiful as they age

She's still stunning.

I figured she retired or moved to another phase of the music business. She hasn't had an album in almost a decade, I think.

Lovers Rock came out in 2000.

And of course it will sell millions. I love these guys' level of fame. With the depressed state of the industry, it wouldn't surprise me if it became their first number one album since 1986.

Is it really still a "they?"

Wikipedia says "yes!"

More from wiki: "'No Ordinary Love' appeared in the second episode of the second season of 30 Rock when Kenneth Parcell tried to seduce Tracy Jordan's wife, Angie Jordan."

I do not believe I remember this. Must rewatch.

And of course it will sell millions.

I hope this is true, for Sade's sake, but I doubt it. Few records sell a million copies these days, right? I guess a digital single might. Also, I'm not sure about the strength-of-commitment of the band's fans (again, I hope the new record sells millions).

Their commitment is immense. Check their US sales: modest but steady.

lovers rock went triple platinum in the u.s.

the live album that followed sold over 500k

Lots of things went triple platinum ten years ago, though.

I think Soldier of Love probably will hit platinum, but it might take half a year or more.

I'm going to buy three million copies and give some away to friends

the album cover kinda reminds me of this

http://dummidumbwit.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/avalon_hi.jpg

haha yeah me too

so excited about this. I was initially a bit disappointed when Lovers Rock came out but i turned out to be pretty good. I still think as recent lol

wow - single comes out tomorrow?!

Does an album going platinum only take into account U.S. sales? Because Sade has a global fanbase, right?

"do something like her previous albums"

Haha gee, ya think?

I for one cannot freaking wait for this to sound exactly like all of her other albums.

it leaked yall
http://2dopeboyz.okayplayer.com/2009/12/07/sade-soldier-of-love/

HMMMMMMMMM

it's kind of great

right? i like how weird it gets

yah lovin this

and i like how it just keeps going

I dunno, not to get all sick mouthall, but it feels kind of compressed and spaceless. Her singing still sounds impeccable, though.

im on laptop speakers so i cant tell

i'm on big headfones and the beat sounds kind of sick. on repeat

Already the best album of 2010.

Kidding, but this thing is a stark contrast to the big, slow-to-change mountains of songs on Lovers Rock. This is all pulse and friction. This is all awesome.

Now I'm really thrilled to hear this. Pulse and friction sounds good!

might be the first cd i've bought in 3 yrs

deej the single didn't "leak", it got released!!

you have to say something leaked or no one cares tho

if its already released than i am #offthat

lol deej

this single btw is the fucking remedy to everything, man oh man I am beyond stoked for this album

btw are you guys covered in snow yet

we were yesterday but tonite it was just hella rainy

not sure what rev was talking about upthread btw the mastering on this sounds real clean

Loving this!

It reminds me a little bit of Lhasa's "Anywhere on this Road".

I too am freaking loving this. It is too much to wish for a Sade/Muse collaboration?

Haha I guess that'll kill a thread dead.

You're all talking about the Soldier of Love song on Sade's website? Yeah, it's good. The song had a toughter edge than the Sade stuff I remember. It's a nice new feature to the sound, I think.

god, i love this so much. on fbook, all my friends are 'Liking' my link the vid. and the mp3. and it just proves to me a point i made once many years ago: 'If you don't like Sade, then you're a fucking cloth-eared moron.'

i'm at the borderline of my faith
i'm at the hinterland of my devotion
in the frontline of this battle of mine

i LOVE this.

*Like*

Whoa. Again, another act that I've somehow remained ignorant of. I was a fucking-cloth-eared-moron, but not by choice. I repent!

Where do I start?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Diamond_Life_album_cover.jpg

haha damn son yr stealing my taste

but seriously just get all her albums u pretty much cant go wrong. 'lovers rock' is probably a notch below the others, though.

my personal fav is either love is stronger than pride
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv9mlnzkJR0
^^^underrated "give it up"

or love deluxe
i dunno there's a thread on her old stuff too, a couple of them i think

Very easy to find her first two records on vinyl in the dollar bin; you'd better believe that Sade fans upgraded to CD.

first three records really

Lovers Rock is a great album. They're all good but don't undersell Lovers Rock.

its great, but like, the 5th season of the wire great

man, it's such a bummer that the wife (although she loves her), won't let me listen to sade around the house because it reminds her too much of the smooth jazz station that her mom listened to growing up.

also outlawed are things like zapp & roger or atomic dog or any other lowrider music. remind her of too much of her latina college roommates. :(

Love Deluxe is a big ol' cave that will steal all warmth from your blood.

Anybody else caught off guard by how deep her voice is at the start?

Sometimes I think "No Ordinary Love" is the most amazing pieces of music ever, so so so intense... An obvious choice maybe but I can't help it.

xp yeah I was first time I heard it, just chalked it up to aging

wkiw latina college roommates

"No Ordinary Love" is trip-hop (the guitar sound! the vocal melancholia) in a pop context.

I still rep for "Sweetest Taboo" and "Nothing Can Come Between Us."

<3

u guys remember that song "king of sorrow" ? i liked that one a lot

Oh man, "King of Sorrow." Shit, fucking all of Lovers Rock was/is solid, I ain't gonna front or somehow say it is less good than what came before by equating it to a minor disappointment in a greater body of work—it is its own glacial monster, "Slave Song" is the mouth, etc.

I'm listening to Diamond Life tonight. I forgot about Hang On To Your Love.

'kiss of life' is on lovedeluxe right? dddamn that song is incredible

"No Ordinary Love" is trip-hop (the guitar sound! the vocal melancholia) in a pop context.

most of that album is!

"no ordinary love" is seriously one of the best things ever recorded

to my shame i only have sade's best of - one of the first CDs i ever bought - plus scattered tracks not on it

xp yeah, cf. also "bullet proof soul"
easily my favorite Sade album

dudes, this new song...on repeat!

"To Turn My Back On You" is my favorite Sade song of all-time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvV1IjFtZic

that BEAT, mmmmm

you know, i think i can probably live without the remix featuring maino :/

lol waht

haha wtf dude has really good taste in collaborators ... how many rappers got to guest on both Rakim & Sade tracks this year??

sade needs to do the next bond song imo

xp if only the same could be said about those he works with

This song was #7 on the "7 o'clock bomb 7" countdown on the local rap/r&b station last night. I was psyched/shocked.

mouth agape at how epic the video is! gun fingers, raised fist salutes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hak4dJkkIyY&feature=player_embedded

<3 <3 <3

anyone who doesn't feel sade deeply = dead2me tbh

better qual video at http://www.soulculture.co.uk/featuredbanner/sade-soldier-of-love-official-video/

holy fuck how does this song get legitimately better every time i listen to it

on first listen it was already a goddamn monster

that machine gun bass

New Sade album comin' out a week before Valentine's Day...we gonna get LAID.

didn't see the vid til now but S1W dances! yes!

streams of another three tracks... http://putmeonit.blogspot.com/2010/01/sade-in-another-time-moon-skin.html

Leaked. DLing now.

ok, i'm like ready to leave my wife in love with this song, but that video is terrible. like natural born killers meets spike lee steppin routines. still so stoked for the album

alex in m can u webmail me ...

I think I've gotten over my lol 00's anal-ness about not DLing leaks of my favorite artists, but this time I think I'll wait. This is something I'd like to hear in one go, on a sofa, and not piecemeal on my ipod in the metro.

i found this

Is that stephen Marley or finley quay on baby father?

did you not get my webmail, deej?

at any rate, this is a thing of wonder. less immediate and more subtle than the lead single, which led me to expect a very different beast but there are depths here that i will spend a long time absorbing.

i only rarely check that email address but i found a link anyway so

yeah this album is way darker than i expected

there's some pretty deep shit on this album. couldn't give the whole thing the attention it deserved but i blasted it in my car driving home for the second or third time and couldn't help noticing babydaddy for instance had some pretty real lyrics (par for the course really but nice to know she hasn't lost her touch)

bonus: lovers rock is on the playlist right after this much-too-short (and therefore perfect length) album and i keep going "oh damn soldier is over.... wait a minute, lovers rock is mad underrated, i'm gonna give this another listen too, again." ...damn! i'm listening to king of sorrow now... sade (and her band/producer/guitarplayer/lover) is/are really fucking quality, amirong?

jesus, lovers rock. and i was thinking soldier kinda blew it out of the water too when it was on before, which means soldiers pretty much bound to become another all-time-fave innit. i can't believe my 50 year old uncle hipped me to this band in the 80's, but i guess that speaks to her universal appeal doesn't it?

can i just say "Skin" is fucking incredible 10/10 all time shit

Got a link; will download tomorrow. Which other Sade albums does this remind you of?

"Slave Song" on Lovers Rock is a motherfucker. A motherfucker

yeah this album is way darker than i expected

not sure if you mean this in a good way or a bad way

(generally, fwiw, i like more brooding albums/songs, so i'm taking it in a good way)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDTeCt-d7BQ

<3

yeah, that's . . . great. much edgier lyrically than i remember sade. and the music is tougher and grittier, too.

can i just say "Skin" is fucking incredible 10/10 all time shit

― average gangsta rap from average gangstas (deej), Thursday, February 4, 2010 11:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah. early favorite for me.

hmmm

taking me some time to get into this

This is endearing. Apparently Sade told a radio DJ how much she loved Raekwon's stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxl7fvAEkAg

From a few days ago -- very informative, detailed story:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article7005060.ece

i <3 her

As we talk, she rolls her own cigarettes and blows the smoke up the chimney above the empty fireplace

awesome

Haha :)

kinda boring on first listen

u rong

I haven't successfully gotten into this other than the single, but it's nice that it's spurred me to listen to more older Sade.

Album really kinda just makes me want to listen to Lovers Rock :-/

u need to listen to "skin" again rev

i think i'd have been disappointed if this album had been immediate, that is not what sade DOES

deej is right about "skin" btw - also "the safest place" immediately afterwards is just lovely

yeah to be fair I remember being underwhelmed by lovers rock for quite a long time. But for the time being there seems to be a bit of a dull tunnel in the middle of the album, where the songs all kinda sound like light throwaway closers à la "It's Only Love That Gets You Through" from the last one.

This is pretty boring on first listen.

my teeth grit so badly every time i have to say that sade is not boring

I like Sade and I think this is boring. Usually there's a lot more tension to her stuff.

can't say every song has stuck with me but i've only listened to it twice properly, holding off on judgment for now - already what has stuck with me is amazing though

im curious if you guys who dont like it dig her more ballad-y stuff on her older albums

Saying it's boring is boring. Explanation, please?

I mean, did you expect a club banger thrown in there?

well she was working with fatboi...

im curious if you guys who dont like it dig her more ballad-y stuff on her older albums

― average gangsta rap from average gangstas (deej), Sunday, February 7, 2010 3:06 PM Bookmark

yes, and the ballads here don't really live up to them

spinspun: I've only listened to it twice, sorry if I don't have all my close readings prepared

nothing boring about, say, 'moon and the sky' imo

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxhkdw7l5S1qz6g6ao1_500.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/arts/music/07sade.html

this album is working well for me at the moment

lolz, this photo is from 2001, i woulda guessed 1985

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/02/07/arts/07sade4/07sade4-popup.jpg

Saying it's boring is boring. Explanation, please?

The album is boring?

i'd say low-key but not boring. a lot of the songs that i ignored at first are starting to seep in. basically there's only one or two at this point that i'm not really digging.

what's the verdict on Babyfather so far?

i dont understand the lyric tbh -- 'your daddy knows you're a fling'?

"Babyfather" is the one song I kind of actively dislike at this point.

i like it musically, i just dont get the lyrics

It's "flame," not "fling."

I doubt I will ever feel an urge to listen to anything but "Soldier of Love" itself.

british accents are weird.

surprised you think SoL is the best track andy k

Yeah, I thought it was "fling" until I read the booklet.

I fell instantly for "SoL" and love the longer album version (those panning probes!) even more. Maybe my second or third favorite song of theirs.

on GMA right now

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the date the picture was taken. The photograph featuring Sade with her band members, Paul Denman, Andrew Hale and Stuart Matthewman, was taken in the 1980s, not in 2001.

I was gonna say: those suspenders are totally Culture Club.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/pic200/drp100/p176/p17627beprm.jpg

(1996, so, yeah)

just getting acquainted w/this (I'm a sade stan) but so far I'd say that "soldier of love" is one of her best-ever tracks

Saw her do it on Letterman last night. Not bad

TMI

HA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeSADY4poAU

I was just about to post that Letterman performance. Was so so great.

Expect the smooth sounds of Sade to overtake the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 album chart next week, as industry sources project the group's new effort "Soldier of Love" could sell between 375,000 to 400,000 by week's end on Feb. 14.

Billboard Reviews Sade's New Album, 'Soldier Of Love'

It will be the act's second No. 1 album -- its first came way back in 1986 with "Promise." "Soldier of Love" is the first studio effort from the band -- led by vocalist Sade Adu -- since "Lovers Rock" was released in 2000. That set debuted and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 370,000 sold in its first week.

Since its release, "Lovers Rock" has sold 3.9 million in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. The new album's title track recently became Sade's eighth top 10 hit on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart -- its first since "Kiss of Life" reached No. 9 in 1993.

wow! i'm surprised. that's great, tho.

that's pretty weird. Album doesnt strike me as no. 1 material

I'm with the "love the title track, not really getting into the rest of it" crowd.

nothing boring about, say, 'moon and the sky' imo

― average gangsta rap from average gangstas (deej), Sunday, February 7, 2010 6:46 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM x 1,000,000 - devastating track

that's pretty weird. Album doesnt strike me as no. 1 material

― saaberonixx (baaderonixx), Thursday, February 11, 2010 9:07 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

are you guys kidding? shes been doing platinum sales to middle aged ppl since forever ... if anything was gonna be number one this was.

most predictable #1 in ages maybe

Yes. My friend and I speculated in December that she would stand to benefit most from depressed sales; she brings out the boomers.

never mind that she always sold huge numbers regardless

has the kind of cross-format appeal where she was would hit smooth jazz, hip-hop, pop fans.

I know she's always sold -- her worst selling album is certified triple platinum here -- but she seemed most likely to score her second #1 album in this climate.

What climate?

the one where young people don't really buy records

ah. some of us old guys don't often buy records -- just download them. legally, i mean.

does timing a release (like Sade, for Valentine's) affect sales?

Yes.

**heads to the corner and looks up "inculcate"...**

did she land no. 1 in physical album sales or does that include downloads?

Legal downloads have been included in the Billboard chart for a few years now.

point taken. I just meant above that the actual content of the album seemed a bit challenging for mass appeal.

strongo reviewing this in p4k

has the kind of cross-format appeal where she was would hit smooth jazz, hip-hop, pop fans.

also i'm pretty sure that there's been a quiet critical re-evaluation of her to the extent where her critical rep and general standing are way higher than i remember for her last album

both Love Deluxe and Lovers Rock placed in P&J

Diamond Life, too

also i'm pretty sure that there's been a quiet critical re-evaluation of her to the extent where her critical rep and general standing are way higher than i remember for her last album

hmmm. thought this sort of reevaluation (re-valuation sounds better) happened precisely with the last album.

or, you know, critics liked her all along

yeah I think a lot of people worked up the courage to come out and fess up around the period of Lovers Rock.

or, you know

14. Sade: Diamond Life (Portrait) 283 (30) *
31. Sade: Love Deluxe (Epic) 181 (19) *
25. Sade: Lovers Rock (Epic) 360 (39)

uk/us divide, over here she always gets dismissed with the boring/yuppie/coffee table accusations - far less so this time round

There is something about Sade that makes you want to actually own the album. Not just the single, and not just a few tracks downloaded off iTunes. And not a Googled rapishare zip. Does Billboard break out physical sales? I bet her share of physical album copies to the total is much higher than with others.

"There is something about Sade that makes you want to actually own the album"

so you can put it on yr coffee table?

Yuppies love CDs

# suffers from R&B deflation but good review otherwise

Impressive:

early 10 years after the group's last studio effort, Sade is back with "Soldier of Love," blasting in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 502,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"Solder of Love" gives Sade its first No. 1 debut and its best sales week since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. On top of that, it's the best sales week for an album by a group since AC/DC's "Black Ice" bulldozed into the chart at No. 1 on the chart dated Nov. 8, 2008, with 784,000.

"Soldier" is Sade's second No. 1 album. Its first, "Promise," spent two weeks at the top of the chart in 1986. The new album is also the first studio effort from the band -- led by vocalist Sade Adu -- since "Lovers Rock" was released in November of 2000. That set debuted and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 370,000 sold in its first week. Since its release, "Lovers Rock" has sold 3.9 million in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.

All told, Sade has notched eight top 10 albums in a row on the Billboard 200 -- its entire output of albums, which stretches back to its "Diamond Life" debut in 1985. That total includes its six studio sets, one greatest hits ("The Best Of") and one live recording ("Lovers Live"). With that feat of eight top 10s, Sade is the first group since Led Zeppelin to see its first eight charting albums all reach the top 10. Led Zeppelin actually did it with its first 10 albums -- from 1969 with its self-titled No. 10-peaking set, up until 1983 when "Coda" topped out at No. 6.

Vasco my house isn't big enough to have a coffee table @(

this is a good record, just wish the production was less tinny sounding. i miss her being backed by a band.

She isn't?

not sure. i thought it was a drum machine for instance on the first few songs. but maybe it is live, its just left to sound a bit tinny.

ie id have liked more songs that sound a bit fuller like in another time.

I was going to say: the drum machine is the real drag here. The title song excepted, these songs have no momentum.

people listen to sade for momentum?

Her older stuff at least sounded as if they were trying to get you into bed.

"To Turn My Back On You" has crazy sexy momentum

"Never As Good as The First Time" and "My Sweetest Taboo"!

I don't think her regular band actually has a drummer?

Production doesn't sound 'tinny' to me at all, FWIW.

I have to say I love the sequencing. It really holds together. And the more I listen the more little folds and eddies I keep finding in the songs.

not tinny then. just cheap. the old stuff sounded rich and luxuriant. this doesnt.

its not about momentum, its that most of these songs all seem to have the same rhythm behind them. which gets a bit dull. not quite plodding though, shes too good a songwriter to let that happen. it is slightly dated sounding though. i dont want to hear dido sounding production on a sade album.

I stopped hating on "White Flag" when it came on the radio and my friend started talking about how great Sade is and me and my friend corrected him that it was Dido, after which it occured to me that I'd probably really like it if it came with Sade's name attached to it.

― The Reverend, Saturday, October 24, 2009 6:57 PM Bookmark

I honestly don't hear "cheap" in this whatsoever!!

Reverend you'd probably like "White Flag" even more if Sade's VOICE was attached to it

titchy, you're ridiculous

"My Sweetest Taboo"!

― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 18, 2010 10:37 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

lmao @ dude pulling an "her older stuff is better" & not actually knowing what her older stuff is called

stfu, article police.

deej I think your threshold for what cause you to l your ao has reached a dangerous low

well, its not 'my sweetest lmao'

the sweetest stfu.

no ordinary lol

no love whatsover for "BABYFATHER"? favorite song right now

I still can't decide whether I despise or love that song.

deej the fact you think you deserve to keep living is ridiculous.

then again considering half the shit you listen to you probably think this stuff sounds like its made for audiophiles.

most awkwardly worded slam in awhile

perhaps you are just a bit thick?

dude deej has good taste what are you talking about

dude this has nothing to do with you - this is about deej trolling me like a little child.

Look titchy I'll give you "slightly dated" and that many of the songs have "the same rhythm" - for me these are two of her selling points. But "cheap" sounding??

I mean, I would actually love this album even more if it DID sound cheap in places but I am just not hearin it

tbh the production is my beef w/this - the percussion's quantized "perfectly" & you can hear it whereas all the way through the last one the feel that you were listening to a group of musicians playing something live & for me that was a real plus to Sade records: that "buncha badass musicians laying deep in the groove and holding it down" feeling. I dig this album but the "live" feel is harder to come by than it was on "lovers rock" & all previous points.

OTOH "cheap"/"tinny": umm no

granted, it might just be my PC speakers. but the thing im talking about is the drum programming/sounds. they sound a bit cheap to me. the sounds are a little ersatz. like the type of hip hop drum sounds you could get on sound modules 10-12 years ago. which is why i think it sounds a bit cheap/dated/tinny. not to the level where it interferes with my enjoyment, but be that easy, in another time, or the safest place are the type of production values i would personally would have liked to see more of.

granted, it might just be my PC speakers

hahahaha amazing self pwn here

PC speakers classify sounds as "African-American" instead of "black."

so when are the Studio remixes coming out???????

i've been saying for YEARS now that balearic sade re-edits have been necessary and yet they STILL don't exist to my knowledge

so when are the Studio remixes coming out???????

― Tracer Hand, Friday, February 19, 2010 10:33 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

for some reason my brain processed this as rhythm & sound remixes. which would be nice too.

hahahaha amazing self pwn here

right, cos youre all listening to it on setups like this?

http://www.rent-the-rig.com/images/home_images/homepagepic.jpg

this thread

http://www.sonyatv.com/writers/images/image/sade_2%281%29.jpg

hurts sade

titchy where did you get that photo of my living room

i was trying to find an image of what i plug my ipod into

actually I use bass-heavy noise-canceling headphones on my iPhone and 5.1 surround sound on both my computer and my home theater but if I had the space, I would take those in a heartbeat

so basically yes I am saying "don't be all audiophile snotty about things if you don't have the hardware"

what im saying is this shit still sounds like it could have been done by didos producers

lets agree to disagree

http://www.coolest-toys.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/kids_with_j_s.gif

"josh, this color-timing is hack work"

good album though :)

I can sort of see the too-drum-machiney critique on "Bring Me Home", but it doesn't bother me at all because the machine-like aspect of it is so foregrounded. It's supposed to be remorseless, unfeeling. Which sets it up for a thrilling (to me) contrast with all those lush harmonies (what are there, like six, seven, eight voices on this track?) "Bring Me Home" is a hell of a dark track. What in God's name that high keening wail is I have no idea. A bogle? A wight?

Right in front of "Bring Me Home" is "Be That Easy", which could practically be Mazzy Star, or the Rolling Stones on a particularly highly-injected day. It feels very live, very loose - you've got brushes on the drums, an organ with a nice fuzzy Leslie sound, some acoustic guitar. And after it you've got "In Another Time", also very live feeling, after-hours sticks on the snare rim, soft triplet arpeggios on the guitar, the trumpet player hasn't gone home yet..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/feb/22/sade-poor-reputation-uk

I always thought Sade was closer to trip-hop than torch muzak, an idea borne out by the title track of her new album, which approaches the metallic vigour of Tricky. It's just a shame the rest of Soldier of Love is so lacking in melodic lustre. Because it would have been fun, and not a little contentious, to proclaim her an idiosyncratic artist with a distinctive vision.

I hate the correlation of design and music, and his stealing my trip-hop idea from me.

hmmm is that guy even right in his description? my impression was that in the US sade IS seen as torch-muzak, but in the UK has a more serious profile and committed muso fanbase.

i guess everybody thinks that her "real" fans are elsewhere?

t would have been fun, and not a little contentious, to proclaim her an idiosyncratic artist with a distinctive vision

well her vision is pretty distinctive - she's been working on it relentlessly for the last 25 years

as far as "idiosyncratic" goes i don't understand why everybody's supposed to be bjork or something

Now, this could simply be A Flock of Seagulls syndrome, whereby a group deemed a joke in Britain is revered in the States.

gtfo

She's like – ahem – late eighties Bryan Ferry. I love many songs, but the albums bore me with their concentration on a couple of musical elements if I'm not in the right mood.

It's a different way of listening - I know this sounds total capn save a Sade but I sort of want the same things from her as I do techno - it's meditative, you can dip in and out at will

thats not captain save a sade yr being unneccessarily defensive. trying to legitimize her by arguing that shes **actually** trip hop is so lame & a huge disservice to her music

I wouldn't say she was "actually" trip-hop, only that "Soldier of Love" would fit nicely on Massive Attack's Protection.

good massage music.

especially if youre having a nice massage in a nice lift.

arguing that shes **actually** trip hop

Are you able to point out where I did this?

Sade doesn't need me to "legitimize" her, she is about as legit as it gets. What I'm trying to do is understand where the criticisms (not live enough, too cheap sounding, too boring) are coming from. Because I am honestly interesting. I'm kicking against these criticisms partially because so far I disagree but also because I hope my kicking makes the critics sharpen their own explanations. Which is the entire point of debate as I understand it.

Finally, if anything I write here helps people hear what I hear in Sade, I think that's great, but it'll only happen if what I write is actually interesting. A caveat that applies to you too.

Haha "I am honestly interested" I should have said ... how Freudian can you get

that piece is right that sade seems dismissed by UK critics in a way that she doesn't seem to be in the US, and i think it's right about why this is the case - it reflects really, really poorly on UK critics! it's less otm about sade's actual music though, and very wrong about the new album.

i suspect a lot of her critics think that "classiness", "sophistication" and "tastefulness" are inherently negative traits, so...they are morons, basically.

i love all those traits. though sade does sometimes take those traits too far into a soporific area. and shes done that even more so since the 90s. but as far as trip hop, she basically did it early on (and really well) with tracks like cherish the day and feel no pain. i kinda agree with 1 of the commenters in that guardian piece who says her last 'great' album was in 1992. the newer stuff for all the good songs, is sonically kinda stuck in the leftovers of that stuff.

anyway, all the stuff about being poorly regarded depends which critics youre talking about - rock critics obv hate it, though thats not surprising, pretty much everyone else doesnt. there are more music critics than those who write for the broadsheets.

its weird hearing songs like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybuyILrDvaw where she/they did used to do something a bit out of their comfort zone.

ahhh i love that DVD! She has like five videos that are basically all of her riding a horse.

This idea that Sade needs to get out of her comfort zone is interesting. You never hear this kind of demand from other people who basically make the same sort of music over and over, i.e. Basic Channel or Frank Sinatra.

i <3 my comfort zone

totally disagree that she hasn't done anything "new" since '92 - both lovers rock and soldier of love feel really distinct from her early stuff to me; a lot more intimate - well, she's always been intimate, but less abstractly intimate, more deeply personal; a lot warmer, inward-looking, familial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q80-W19XUic&fmt=34

love deluxe era instrumental b-side

never said she didnt do anything new. and i dont mean she should reinvent herself - that critic from the guardian was well off base by saying she didnt have a singular vision, she does, which is what people who dont like her find annoying lol - but the occasional break from downtempo-ness is not a bad thing. i think she can sometimes be too aware of her 'classiness' and its really easy to not remotely venture out of that if you want to keep everything in that orderly perfectly contained kind of vibe that she does, so a song like never as good is just a nice change of pace.

that make some room track is great btw.

anyone else listen to morning bird and think of didos here with me when she sings 'i will not run'?

Not really but I do know I find that song utterly heartbreaking.

safest place is the most heartbreaking song.

errr, I would say Babyfather strays from her comfort zone.

Anyway I agree with both arguments here - I do think Sade has evolved substantially since '92, becoming increasing warm and organic and maybe somehow singer-songrwiter-ish. Yet, Love Deluxe remains their most unique (and IMHO interesting) output.

yeah i mean 'love deluxe' is my favorite sade record (altho my favorite sade SONGS are on her other ones) these days

well thats not entirely true -- kiss of life is on lovedeluxe

on babyfather, does anyone else think it undermines the ambiguous coldness/cruelty of saying the child was a fling by having a guy on BVs saying 'daddy loves you child' etc. i liked it before i noticed all that. though im not sure who shes directing the apparent resentment of the fact its a fling at, its like shes explaining matter of factly to the child that she was the result of a fling, while kinda taking a hit at the dad for not sticking around. that the 'dad' seems to get a chance to speak later on i think undoes it a bit.

well that and the fact that the chorus mentions that the daddy love comes w/ a lifetime guarantee

yeah i now magine the song being used on national babyfather day (if there was a babyfather day) adverts

This is pretty boring on first listen.

― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, February 7, 2010 4:19 PM (2 months ago)

The title song excepted, these songs have no momentum.

― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 18, 2010 10:12 AM (2 months ago)

Hold up a second -- isn't this coming from the guy who repped for Maxwell as 2009's best album?

Anyway... just picked this up a couple days ago. Sounds great on first spin.

the Maxwell album was a lot better than this

A lot better for zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

youre both idiots

fuck yourself

;_;

the Sade record is good sorry bro

soldeejr of love

You people are up too late. Put on the Sade record and go to bed.

soldeejr of love

+1

posts v much in character

deej is determined to like this album no matter how many people he has to be snarky to

^if deej could have a board description

haha

im hardly known for 'liking' albums. soldier of love >>> love vs. money

U HEARD ME

j0hn are you still out there insisting sade didnt use breakbeats

http://www.alsbom.org/clientimages/36469/graphics_and_clip_art/Challengers.jpg

on babyfather, does anyone else think it undermines the ambiguous coldness/cruelty of saying the child was a fling by having a guy on BVs saying 'daddy loves you child' etc. i liked it before i noticed all that. though im not sure who shes directing the apparent resentment of the fact its a fling at, its like shes explaining matter of factly to the child that she was the result of a fling, while kinda taking a hit at the dad for not sticking around. that the 'dad' seems to get a chance to speak later on i think undoes it a bit.

actually i kinda got the idea that she was tryin not to talk bad about pops - kinda on a "we always knew it was never gonna last but we both love ya anyway" tip. thus softening the harshness of the "knows you're a fling" line, and making the message a bit more complex that your typical r&b diva "he ran off and he's a bastard, but who needs him anyway, woman power 4eva rrraaawwrrrr" schtick

^^good post

xps "U HEARD ME" is kinda telegraphing the challop, don't u think?

obv

still think she's saying flame xxpost

It's "flame," not "fling."

I doubt I will ever feel an urge to listen to anything but "Soldier of Love" itself.

― Andy K, Monday, February 8, 2010 9:43 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark

When I posted this, I should have noted that there was a source: the booklet.

Also:

http://www.sade.com/us/lyrics/babyfather/

interesting hear that from an official source (i commented on this before when i read that on some random lyrics page) but to me it clearly sounds like fling. i have a theory: she put it on the lyrics sheet as "flame" so as not to harsh her daughter, but sang it as "fling".

of course i could be reading way to much into this, obviously. anyway i like it as "fling" so i'll continue to choose to hear it as "fling"!

Anyone with the time or cash to see the current Sade tour (first in ten years!) would be well served snagging a ticket. She was great last night, smooth as silk and oddly down to earth for someone of her status and reputation. Sound/band was great, too, and visuals were minimal but effective. I had my doubts she would work in an arena, but I was proven wrong. She may also be the best looking 52-year old I have ever seen.

She may also be the best looking 52-year old woman I have ever seen.

shes been doing arena tours for so long id hope shed be good! would have loved to have seen it last night $$$$$$$

saw the tour 2 days back (wednesday). HOLY SHIT so good. all the new stuff from Soldier of Love.... excellent. Love Deluxe cuts (cherish the day, kiss of life, no ordinary love, pearls) and Lovers Rock (by your side, king of sorrow) all fucking dynamite. only thing a bit cheesy was the old lounge-y stuff, the sweetest taboo, smooth operator... etc. but about 90% solid gold. "jezebel" was stunning, "morning bird" WOWOWOW. whole show was just so good really. john legend not bad either!

Those songs are not cheesy damn u

hope this record has risen in ppl's estimations over the past few years. "in another time" is probably my favorite sade song at this point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68OTrm5fC9o

Good call – I'd forgotten about "In Another Time."

"Be That Easy" :O

The whole second half really. Plus the rest.

about to be the ten year anniv

i hate reading my tone in these old threads but i stand by the gist of 'being really stoked abt this album'

10 years wow. I still feel like I somehow haven’t yet had time to give it a good listen.

11th anniversary!

oh damn ... i cant count

#74 on pitchfork year end list .... ariel pink #1 ... thoughts on which has aged better

I was about to say: this came out when I was still in office at XLR8R, which ended in mid-2010. We had an office listening party when it came out.

love this album so gd much

"be that easy" ... "in another time" ... tears

I remember my shock of glee when the title track was so awesome.

Just think: the Dems hadn't lost control of the Senate yet.

man this album

i'm finally diving into it and i really think it might be their best. how anything can deal with death so forthrightly and have such a light touch at the same time feels like such a miracle. somehow even the family stuff reaches me - the treatment is gentle, relieving, unsentimental, full of detail and observation, the truth there is so undeniable. her vocal performances on these tracks.. there's a whole life and universe there, they feel truly representative of all of humanity. some of these songs have 'recently minted songbook standard' vibes to them. at the same time there's something unassuming to the whole thing, sort of hidden in plain sight. what an achievement.

be that easy, babyfather and soldier of love are great songs

otm

be that easy completely destroys me.

i'm not sure who exactly some of these songs are addressed to, but it seems like it may be ... god ...?

also, i really did need to know that in spite of the long hard road ahead it's going to be alright. you know?

just like, crying for 30 minutes straight in the car while this cd plays

Just discovered on YT the clips of the official live recording of 2011. Wonderful and unusual staging. Might buy a DVD for the first time in 15 years

“Be That Easy” is so fuckin nice

no love for 'skin' ....

I doubt I will ever feel an urge to listen to anything but "Soldier of Love" itself.

― Andy K, Monday, February 8, 2010 8:43 AM (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

curious if andy has come around

That's all he's listened to since 2010.

"skin" is divine.

i've had this in my car for a few weeks now. it's a total comfort listen. something about this combo: grief / family loss + the sober / real / "morning after" vocals + incredible grooves / very crafty but light touch on everything.

"the moon and the sky" is lush and almost gothic, what an anthem about love turned on its head.
those last few minutes of "soldier of love" are such a groove - p funk vibes.
"morning bird" is devastating mothers' grief.
"babyfather" is wonderful, it's honestly not my favorite thing here because of the subject matter but it's very seductive.
"long hard road" is a perfect miniature about being lost and moving ahead anyway.
"be that easy" - obsessed with this.
"bring me home" - this song is nuts. did i ever think i would hear a sade song about being at that stage in life where you just want to die + major halloween vibes? there's almost a spiteful joy for me in singing along to it.
"in another time" - matthewman's sax! the first time it shows up on the album, and what a song for it. just like, "fuck those dudes." time washes away everything.
"skin" - "cause you're not right within" - probably the sickest burn i have ever heard
"the safest place" i have never had a child but this is very compelling, very rich soundscape

my ranking is something like

"be that easy" > "moon and the sky" = "soldier of love" = "skin" = "in another time" = "bring me home" > "long hard road" = "morning dove" > "babyfather" = "the safest place"

it's not like i've heard very much music, but i've never heard anything in the pop realm that gets so real about death and loss and what it takes (or doesn't take) to deal with it.

"be that easy" gets me literally every time i listen to it. when the thesis of the song arrives, that she could have been falling all these years, full of air, sun on her face wind in her hair, falling down, flying as slow as she can, not trying to reach the land, just falling somewhere - that, to me, is maybe the most beautiful thing i've ever heard, and i burst into tears every time she sings it.

I remember not thinking about Sade for years, until I noticed a bunch of live videos on Youtube that had ten million views apiece, e.g. this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au8rHGvytn8

They're one of those bands that are much bigger in the US than the UK. The more I hear the more the strike me as a hidden gem - the stereotype in the 1980s was that they made smooth music for Porsche-owning businesspeople who had compact disc players, but in 2023 we are all Porsche-driving businesspeople with compact disc players. Obviously no literally. But metaphorically. On a more serious level I've always found it hard to get into The Blue Nile because their production smacks of the period whereas Sade has a timeless quality. I can see the band being popular with modern internet kids.

It's odd how bands you ignore when you're young creep up on you. I'm still thrown by the resurgence of interest in Slowdive. Of all the bands! Slowdive. I would never have predicted Slowdive coming back into fashion, not in a million years. But Sade is still sort-of in fashion because they're still the same band, they didn't stop.

I learn from discogs.com that some vinyl pressings of the first album had SHAR-DAY written on the LP labels.

Sade are great. I’m glad you are on the right side.

except this business of timelessness ;)

i mean, time is a major theme for this band, but it's definitely mortal time.

i love all of the albums but none have quite flashed 'this is a major work of art' at me like soldier of love has. still i don't think it's perfect. the last song doesn't quite gel for me.

map i've been appreciating your sporadic dispatches in this thread. it's prompted me to play the album front to back a couple times for the first time in many years; probably since it was new. it really has opened up, keeping the themes of your insights in mind. thank you.

same -- love the posts, map

ty, glad it prompts a relisten.

"babyfather" is wonderful, it's honestly not my favorite thing here because of the subject matter but it's very seductive.

"babyfather" is a major-key, positive, chill song that sounds bright. but ironically it might be the most painful song for me to listen to on this album because of the failures of my own father.

“be that easy” <333

i am still listening to this in the car on repeat! not much new to add, other than i went back to love deluxe for a few weeks and noticed that "cherish the day" shares some of the thesis of "be that easy," with a different emphasis. for a long time i heard those first words of the chorus, "i cherish the day," with an implied "when" after it. as in "i cherish the day (when something unnamed but wonderful happens)". i think this is a construction i picked up from a religious upbringing (as in, "the day of the lord's return" or whatever). anyway, i only recently realized that she means "the day" as in "the daytime" as in "the present". and the song is a meditation on the sacredness of the conscious present. similarly, the thesis of "be that easy" is that after a lifetime of being propped up ("that's just like you to tell me i've nothing to fear") or torn down ("i am a broken house"), she sees clearly that what life is is a "falling", stripped to its essence of being-in-time ("full of air / sun on my face wind in my hair"). as a falling, it isn't just the day, it's a succession of days arranged in this beautiful arc of grace. i hope that's not overdescribed. anyway, now i'm curious to go back further and listen for other traces of this kind of meaning-of-life-is-the-present-moment stuff in the 80s records.

"in another time," the whole effect of the song is right there in the title. how to make a peaceful time in the future speak to the hurt of the past, like clean water clearing out a stagnant pond or a breeze bringing in something new that smells safe and alive. that whole outro with the violin and the piano and then the saxophone is this gentle wave that crests right in the last few seconds.

"bring me home," i just want to highlight this line: "the small step i need to take is a mountain / stretched out like a lazy dog." makes me shiver every time. like, can someone call and check on sade i'm a little worried about her. i mean obv the song is from the pov of someone seeking death, not a personal reflection, but that kind of image can't come from anything else but deeply felt experience imo.

I'm loving this live blogging.

I haven't read all of this thread but I just recently re-listened to love deluxe/lovers rock and I was very struck by how out of time Sade's musical progression is. I haven't listened to Soldier of Love or the 80s records in a bit but it struck me that as much as Sade was influenced by things going on musically around them (I get a strong Ibiza vibe at times on Lover's Rock for example) they also seem totally out of time. Or maybe more correctly in their own timeline. Like the hints of Soldier of Love already exist in Lover's Rock 9 years earlier and the same goes for Love Deluxe/Lover's Rock. Unlike say, Portishead where Third feels like an entirely new thing strung together by Gibbons' voice Sade feels very in touch with their earlier music over the long stretches of time between their records.

excited to read through the rest of your thoughts map.

map forced me to buy a copy of Soldier of Love (I'd burned several tracks + remixes long ago). I'm loving it, certainly their best since 1988.

i'm not totally sure how to articulate this but one thing they've always seemed to have to some degree is a version of "jazz" that i would say is organized around sade's vocal performances. on soldier of love the flow and spaciousness of her vocal lines and delivery feel very deliberate to me, a sort of highly conscious minimal construction akin to miles davis' playing on, well, what's in my mind is the first track of jack johnson, but whereas that's channeling a boxing performance, sade is gesturing towards things like the passing of time, love, birth and death. songs about injury and resilience, specifically on soldier of love.

i think how they have melded jazz and rhythm into pop song structures is very sophisticated, very much their own construction, has been a throughline through the decades, and is maybe part of why they feel so "out of time". there might be a few instances over the decades where the construction of that depth and spaciousness slipped but i think they've always had a very high "batting average" with it so to speak, on every album from the beginning. need to go back to the first few and revisit. the way they do it is so interesting to me. of course it's very subtle, but also very attuned to every moment. they take the space and embodiment of jazz and rhythm and marry it to the urgenicy of 'song'. each era and album has a few formal experiments with it and then tracks that just go for the bleachers with emotional saturation for fuel.

i know this is the soldier of love thread but just a side note that 'give it up' on stronger than pride is one of my favorite rhythms they've ever recorded, that stopped crash cymbal repeating. it's a shorter track and you'd be tempted to think it was a tossed off thing at the end of the album but i just think it's so intense and spiritual and just rhythmically electrifying.

will i think the 'ibiza' sound has always been strongly identified with sade, in some ways they may have been progenitors. i'm not an ibiza expert. "the sweetest taboo" video comes to mind, sade alternately jamming in the loft and then riding a white horse through the spanish countryside with a free spirited hunk - quintessential ibiza it seems to me.

hey map, i've got this on vinyl and i'd like you to have it if you want it. you mentioned some time back that the email connected to your ilx is no longer accessible, so putting out a message here. please contact me via the ilx messaging thingy if interested.

that is .. extremely generous austin. i sent you a webmail. best.