Sade gets busy
Sade (Sha-day) was not meant for the car. Sade was not meant for the dance floor. The band (yes, Sade is a band) certainly was not meant for the radio. Sade is meant for making babies, middleaged divorcees reading romance novels, elevators and perhaps background music during a late-night study session. But the passionate sounds of Soldier of Love are interpreted best fireside with a glass of wine and some silk sheets.
Soldier of Love opening track, “The Moon and the Sky,” starts off instrumentally as the cliché opening track to a late-night adult movie you would catch on Cinemax. The soft, enchanting strums of the guitar lead into lead singer Sade Adu’s (born Helen Folasade Adu) sensually-hypnotizing sound.
The title track, “Soldier of Love,” maintains the traditional, laid-back Sade sound while incorporating an experimental combative drum line. It is the stand out track of the entire album. “Babyfather” and “The Safest Place” are also notable tracks, but aside from the switching of production from track to track, the album could be mistaken for one continuous piece, which I guess works well when you’re trying to make babies.
Soldier of Love is not anything entirely new in terms of redefining music with its mix of R&B and world ele m e n t s . The album is 10 new tracks from a group that has not released an album since 2000. If you’re a fan of Sade, you won’t be disappointed (except for the duration of the album, which is only 41 minutes). If you haven’t heard Sade before, maybe you’ll discover that you have a new favorite artist to get busy to.
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