Format: flac cue log
Genre: Funk / Soul, Jazz, Pop
Release Date: 2005
Label: BMG
Sade - Diamond Life 1984
Format: flac cue log
Genre: Funk / Soul, Jazz, Pop
Release Date: 1984
Label: Epic
BBC Review
Daryl Easlea 2010-09-08
When you learn the bangs, crashes and whirrs that most music made in 1984, it is awful to learn how virtuous and untouched the debut album by Sade, Diamond Life, still sounds. Emerging from St Martin`s Art School in London, the ring was formed from London funk favourites Pride. Adored by publications such as The Face, the group`s lead singer Sade Adu looked stunning and had a voice to match.
Produced by Robin Millar, Diamond Life succeeded in devising the Soho in-crowd of the early 80s an in-crowd for the world. With well-honed originals and a covering of Timmy Thomas` rare groove swamp ballad Why Can't We Go Together?, Sade made explicit both the musical elitism and joy of discovery of that era.
Smooth Operator is a perfect trance of this heady, glossy time. Adu's voice curls around the recording like smoke. Your Passion Is King - surprisingly, their only ever UK top 10 single - is sweetness writ large. There`s the dispassionate funk of Hang on to Your Bed and the penniless optimism of When Am I Going to Earn a living?, which provided a mellow critique of Margaret Thatcher`s Britain ("Haven`t I told you earlier that we`re hungry for a life we can`t afford?"). The recoil of Cherry Pie is redolent of later period Roxy Music, a huge, effortless wash of sound.
However, dissenters were rather sniffy about Sade. The album chimed perfectly with the loadsamoney era, and was victimized by its myriad listeners as a crosscut for Sade`s huge library of musical references. Why hear Roberta Flack, or Donny Hathaway, when you had this? Tracks such as Frankie`s First Affair are rather mired in their day, as is Sally with Stuart Matthewman`s sax draped all over it like some bad detective soundtrack.
Diamond Life became a statistician`s dream; it spent 99 weeks on the UK chart, racked up awards, launched a tremendously successful career in the US and put Sade on the peak at Live Aid, and still no-one actually had any clue who Adu and her band were. For them, there was no celebrity, no pouring out of clubs at 4am. It started them as a cottage industry at the center of the music business, and that continues to this day.
Sade - Promise 1985
Format: flac cue log
Genre: Funk / Soul, Jazz, Pop
Release Date: 1984
Label: Epic
PROMISE, Sade's 1985 follow-up to her phenomenally successful debut, has the same breezy, sophisticated R&B approach as DIAMOND LIFE, sounding like a crossing between light wind and a low-key nightclub set of torch songs. Sade's detached, understated vocals are the image of cool, and spell her technical range is limited-her performances are never about pyrotechnics-her elegant style creates a seductive mood. PROMISE heightens these effects with crisp production, gently interlocking keyboard and guitar lines, and washes of percolating rhythm, creating a textured landscape for Sade's vocals to soar over.
PROMISE contains the gently grooving "The Sweetest Taboo," one of Sade's most immediately recognizable songs, and "Never As Well as the First Time," another pop and R&B chart hit. There is rarely a trip on the album, as it alternates between subdued grooves and chilly ballads (most notably the melancholic, minor-key "Jezebel"), keeping the musical vibe varied but quiet, and the overall atmosphere low-lit and intimate. Even more successful than its predecessor, PROMISE went triple platinum, and secured Sade's place as a pop sensation.
All That Music! Pop
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