Diamond nights and ruby lights: your favorite SADE album

Pretty easy choice for me, since 'Love Deluxe' is one of my favorite albums ever. I tried a few years back to make a mixtape conjuring sultry poolside nights, but in the end that whole album played better than any mixtape I could come up with.

Love Deluxe, as long as I turn it off before the wanky jam at the end.

"diamond life" - cherry pie cannot be topped

hardest poll ever, though - all her albums sound the same!

does anybody have her video collection? it's amazing - there are like 4 videos that were all obviously from the exact same shoot - same cast, same cameras, same sets... the only difference is that people are wearing slightly different clothes

hardest poll ever, though - all her albums sound the same!

Really? For me the first three albums are definitely from the same mould, pretty lite-jazzy with a hint of old school RnB, whereas 'Love Deluxe' comes off as way darker and minimal than the rest. The last album didn't do much for me, with a poppier and a slightly slightly dubbier sound.

hmm, those tags came out wrong!

Ah, Lovers Rock is great.

Yeah Lovers Rock is really really good.

baaderonix you're right of course - though to my mind they are very small differences in the whole scheme of things. but i guess that's what threads like this are about!

3 votes? that's even less than I expected...

I only know the song "By Your Side". But I do really like it.

Whichever one has "The Sweetest Taboo."

Love Deluxe is her masterpiece, Stronger Than Pride the underated one. really the first four are flawless if you synch into her groove.

in the late 90s I wrote a feature story on neo-soul and when I interviewed Maxwell, d'Angelo and Eryka Badu, they all mentioned Sade as a prime influence along with old school hip-hop. surprising.

she's never received her due afaic.

she's sad, smoky, and clear as running water. there's something in her voice that reminds me of both k.d. lang and billie holiday - a kind of liquidy velvet buoyancy that allows her to ride atop an almost never-revealed reservoir of strength. i was in love with her for awhile

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Whichever one has "Smooth Operator".

"Lovers Rock" is, like, really remarkably good

I love the hits from way back when like the next guy but I think "Lovers Rock" is really the best one, it's just so airy but dark and rich too...amazing record

THE CORRECT ANSWER IS STRONGER THAN PRIDE

I HATE THEM THAT DISAGREE WITH ME BUT SHOT THEM THAT DO AGREE WITHME

Love Deluxe. It's the only one that seemed to hold together as a whole album without boring filler, and like magic, it holds up after a zillion plays.

Lovers Rock was like falling off a cliff as far as disappointment goes. I mean, I really thought it would be a sure thing and wow...I sold it. Maybe going away and having a child wasn't such a great thing for her music after all.

Stronger Than Pride is underrated, I agree. There are some really funky and essential tracks on that.

I don't think she gets near enough props among the people I know. She's kindof out there in left field, a phenomenon all her/their own.

Trayce, I don't have her videos but I do have a live video of her and it's just stunning. Her beauty alone is just too much. Most beautiful pop star ever, I think.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

*GASP* A tie! We need a runoff...

I do have a live video of her and it's just stunning. Her beauty alone is just too much. Most beautiful pop star ever, I think.

Completely OTM. Jeez..

Listening to the lite-metal version of 'No Ordinary Love' on that dvd, I can see why Deftones would cover that song.

this was always default love deluxe but uh stronger than pride is really opening up for me lately and it also happens to be perfect?

TPL reaches Sade, for the one instance so far, unlike other places: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/sade-promise.html

I'd vote "Stronger Than Pride" today

same

bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzvM0M6lRfI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxNwpZR_-S8

has owned my summer mornings

mad professor mix still owns my life tho

(lol nearly wrote large professor, obviously the typo marsha ambrosius didn't catch)

http://steadyleanin.tumblr.com/post/39806558340/download-sade-feel-no-pain-best-of-sade

screwed (and not chopped), owns my summer

gimmicks don't befit

ugh that edit

TPL reaches Sade, for the one instance so far, unlike other places: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/sade-promise.html

― agincourtgirl, Tuesday, 5 August 2014 17:48 Bookmark

this is good

some thoughts re aspiration/sophistication/country realness/belonging/"relatability"/uk v usa perspectives thereof that might have been nice to have had when we were comparing sade with katy b (possibly with teedra throughline) that time

xp wha u no like? savage

This is my favorite Sade remix tho

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RxfnBhwc9xg

xp wha u no like? savage

"ugh" in this context = "i'm totally overwhelmed"

u crazy kids with ur ambiguous gruntings

there 2 x 12"s of vin sol & matrixxman edits for you to luxuriate in fyi, this year's and last

Listening to the 2012 live album right now. Saw her on the Love Deluxe tour in 1992. Fantastic, and this disc is amazing.

so how would the last fit in this ranking? Never managed to really get into it?
OTOH, it tokk me 5-6 years to really warm up to Lovers Rock - just below Deluxe for me, these days.

i got way into soldier of love last year. think the sequencing is a bit off but otherwise it's a+. besides my ranking of sade records shifts every few months

prob at this point:
love deluxe
stronger than pride
lovers rock
promise
soldier of love
diamond life

stronger than pride
love deluxe
diamond life
promise
lovers rock
soldier of love

Missed this poll, would have automatically voted Diamond Life, but just heard it for the first time in years and it doesn't hold up at all for me. I think I'd probably go with Love Deluxe now, though I never heard Soldier Of Love. Feel a big Sade kick coming on.

If you listen to all the Sade albums in chronological sequence there's a strong sense that each of the first five albums is more deeply-felt and personal and throbbing with emotion than the last - the songs sound positively light-hearted on Diamond Life, whereas by Love Deluxe and Lovers Rock everything's drowning in feeling.

^I may try and do that as I only know the debut and assorted singles after that.
re: "drowning in feeling", Superpitcher feels it, too: http://www.whosampled.com/sample/479623/Superpitcher-Snow-Blind-Sade-Immigrant/

IT'S ABOUT FAITH

IT'S ABOUT TRUST

i love sade so much.

"Maureen" has been my discovery.

Love Deluxe is such a darkly gorgeous album. Easily my favorite.

this one breaks my heart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzgC6jSwWhc

I suspect these guys are ruthlessly efficient and only work on the few numbers that make the album but I would love to hear an expanded "Deluxe Love Deluxe" with demos, odds and ends

After a week of Sade revision my current rankings would be

Love Deluxe
Stronger Than Pride
Diamond Life
Promise
Soldier Of Love
Lovers Rock (this is the only one I've not fully connected with)

love deluxe and stronger than pride are def the top two

Agree those are the top two but Lovers Rock is the one I've been going too recently. It's Only Love That Gets You Through rules all.

Heh -- I'm working on something now.

Suffice it to say that Promise is their best but STP has proven the most sonically influential.

Love Deluxe will always be my #1 because that's the tour I saw her on. Digable Planets opened.

It’s the clear #1

Love Deluxe has been my number one for a while, but I can feel Stronger Than Pride catching it up. One thing I'm finding is that there's really not much between Promise and Diamond Life for me these days.

I feel like if you think the answer to this poll is easy or clear then maybe you need to spend more time listening to Sade.

My ranking -- good times come and they go.

Another double, Alfred: you ranked “Turn My Back On You” twice. Is it a feature or a bug?

Nah, it's editing.

I got another song in, though.

MOP By Your Side remix is kind of genius https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwAcM8BiBck

Stronger Than Pride destroying my world album-wise rn. Chills down the spine @ Haunt Me.

god "Maureen" is incredible, wtf

YUP

I wish I had a time machine so I could throw “All About Our Love” onto mixtapes I made for any of relationships I was in circa 2000-2005. Slinky jam.

The run from Promise through Lover's Rock is basically unimpeachable.

The first and final albums are great too, but the only ones where I don't think "this is definitely the best Sade album" while they're playing.

hot take: besides love deluxe —which is in my all time top ten, maybe even top five— stronger than pride is far and away their best album.

secondary hot take: diamond life is their worst album.

tertiary hot take: solider of love is better than diamond life by about two or three astronomical units.

bonus track: diamond life is overrated as hell.

your tertiary take and bonus track are remixes of your secondary take. in any case i can't agree but i respect the strong opinion.

okay now I am obsessed with “I Couldn’t Love You More”, I want to build a home inside of these two piano chords and live there forever

"Cherry Pie" y'all

here is where i remind everyone that you can play “cherry pie” at 45 and mix it with house and 2-step

also: it is sade’s birthday

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw83833/Sade

https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=88533

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolu8ug9lC1qkvtqmo1_500.jpg

lol oops I thought it was still Sade's birthday and didn't realize it was 2 months ago

okay now I am obsessed with “I Couldn’t Love You More”, I want to build a home inside of these two piano chords and live there forever

― Warmed Regards, (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, October 12, 2021 1:34 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

I really like this raw house edit of “couldn’t love you more”, by Florian Kupfer I think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLNV6Pmv5t0

once a year or so i go looking for sade remixes again, didn't know about that one - sounds pretty good

"by your side" had a few good ones, i really like this moodymann take on it

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