sade - lovers rock [poll]

By your side. I still remember it stunning me when I first heard it. One of those moments when nothing else seems to exist

By your side. I still remember it stunning me when I first heard it. One of those moments when nothing else seems to exist

"I am in the wilderness.
You are in the music in the man's car next to me."

i think this song, like "cherish the day," makes the most sense not as a song addressed to a lover, but as a song addressed to God. not really your old testament traditional religion kind of god, not the kind that commands, but the kind that delicately underlies being, that is defined by open-endedness and mystery and continually arises out of the present moment. i find great beauty in these two lines which seem to me like an evocation of this god. i see someone like myself going through hell while behind the wheel of a car - a place i've been so many times before. and then the music in the man's car next to me floating out and bringing me out of my thoughts with a thread that leads into the present moment, continually shifting and surprising me.

"Somewhere in my sadness
I know I won't fall apart completely."

I've been dealt some sadness in life, like everyone has, and I love how these lines get at this wonderful phenomenon of recognition in the midst of overwhelmingly stormy emotions. Often after I cry, the emotions dry up for a moment and I have a feeling of "here I am, right now." A sense of both change and continuity. The storm might keep raging, but that moment is undeniable, a reminder that the storm will end. That my aliveness includes all of the weather, and that I still like living.

"When I need to be rescued,
When I need a place to swim,
I have a rock to cling to in a storm.
When no one can hear me calling,
I have you I can sing to.

And I know this.
And I know my life."

The central metaphor of the song - God (again, sort of a mystical zen buddhist god) as a solid, dependable landing place - and the devotional aspect of it comes into full being in the typical sade cadence of these deceptively simple but majestic brush strokes.

anyway, i love this song and could type so many other words about it but i'll stop for now. i'm voting for it without a second thought even though "by your side" and a few others here are just as stunning in different ways.

lovely post map <3

omg i nearly started this poll last week. i put this record on for the first time in a while and it very suddenly became my favorite sade record

My least favorite Sade album to this point, exceptions noted ("By Your Side," "Immigrant," the title track). Sometimes there's not enough going on rhythmically. Soldier of Love, I agree, is the culmination of this approach.

I'm a little burned out on "By Your Side," so I may go for "Immigrant."

idk i may vote for "somebody already broke my heart" or "it's only love that gets you through" (so gorgeous it stops time)

map otm. title track without a second thought.

just another day
nothing's any good

maybe it's "king of sorrow" for me????

LOVE "king of sorrow"

I'M CRYING EVERYONE'S TEARS

mmmhmmm

easiest poll ever because the best song of all time is one of the options

She makes the best closers

might be "all about our love" for me. such a nice surprise when it was included in the 'soldier of love' tour setlist!

What do y'all consider Sade's weakest album? She has no duds -- this to me is her most okay.

no weak albums no bad songs. i listen to diamond life the least and it’s pretty perfect

1. Love Deluxe
2. Promise
3. Soldier of Love
4. Stronger Than Pride
5. Diamond Life
6. Lovers Rock

good grief, i just attempted to do a similar ranking and was self-justifying a four-way tie for first, so idk. the albums become more meandering as the band keeps making records. that's not a bad thing, but it certainly makes their intial run have more impact regardless of when you hear them.

that said, i revisit the first album and the most recent album the least.

Should start a betting pool on whether they or Rihanna will release their next album first.

its by your side but i have heard it too much probably (echoing alfred) so i def reach for somebody already broke my heart, king of sorrow or all about our love these days. all about our love would be my #2

The way she sings “if only” on by your side is an arrow through my heart

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