SADE : COMPLETE

 

Disc One (76:20)

  1. Smooth Operator
  2. Your Love Is King
  3. Hang on to Your Love
  4. Frankie's First Affair
  5. When Am I Going to Make a Living
  6. Cherry Pie
  7. Sally
  8. I Will Be Your Friend
  9. Why Can't We Live Together
  10. Is It a Crime
  11. The Sweetest Taboo
  12. War of the Hearts
  13. You're Not the Man
  14. Jezebel
  15. Mr. Wrong

Disc Two (70:29)

  1. Punch Drunk
  2. Never as Good as the First Time
  3. Fear
  4. Tar Baby
  5. Maureen
  6. love is stronger than pride
  7. paradise
  8. nothing can come between us
  9. haunt me
  10. turn my back on you
  11. keep looking
  12. clean heart
  13. give it up
  14. i never thought i'd see the day
  15. siempre hay esperanza

Disc Three (71:46)

  1. 1 No Ordinary Love
  2. Feel No Pain
  3. I Couldn't Love You More
  4. Like a Tattoo
  5. Kiss of Life
  6. Cherish the Day
  7. Pearls
  8. Bullet Proof Soul
  9. Mermaid
  10. by your side
  11. flow
  12. king of sorrow
  13. somebody already broke my heart
  14. all about our love
  15. slave song

Disc Four (60:21)

  1. The sweetest gift
  2. every word
  3. immigrant
  4. lovers rock
  5. it's only love that gets you through
  6. the moon and the sky
  7. soldier of love
  8. morning bird
  9. babyfather
  10. long hard road
  11. be that easy
  12. bring me home
  13. in another time
  14. skin
  15. the safest place

Label : Epic

Release Year : 2010

Review (AllMusic) for Diamond Life (1984 : Former model Sade made an immediate and huge impact with her 1984 debut album, Diamond Life. Her sound and approach were deliberately icy, her delivery and voice aloof, deadpan, and cold, and yet she became an instant sensation through such songs as "Smooth Operator" and "Your Love Is King," where the slick production and quasi-jazz backing seemed to register with audiences thinking they were hearing a jazz vocalist.

Review (AllMusic) for Promise (1985) : Sade's second album improved on the performance of her debut, as "Sweetest Taboo" was a huge hit and "Never as Good as the First Time" landed in both the R&B and pop Top 20. She was once again the personification of cool, laid-back singing, seldom extending or embellishing lyrics, registering emotion, or projecting her voice. This demeanor made her more desirable in the minds of many fans and was perhaps the ultimate misapplication of the notion of sophistication. But this album topped the pop charts and eventually went triple platinum.

Review (AllMusic) for Stronger Than Pride (1988) : After two LPs with little or no energy, Sade demonstrated some intensity and fire on her third release. Whether that was just an attempt to change the pace a bit or a genuine new direction, she had more animation in her delivery on such songs as "Haunt Me," "Give It Up," and the hit "Paradise." Not that she was suddenly singing in a soulful or bluesy manner; rather, Sade's dry and introspective tone now had a little more edge, and the lyrics were ironic as well as reflective. This was her third consecutive multi-platinum album, and it matched the two-million-plus sales level of her debut.

Review (AllMusic) for Love Deluxe (1992) : Sade's fourth album, Love Deluxe, included the hit "No Ordinary Love" and marked a return to the detached cool jazz backing and even icier vocals that made her debut album a sensation. Although Sade's style is more suggestive than hypnotic and her production and arrangements are in an urbane mode rather than a jazz one, she maintained her popularity among the fusion and urban contemporary audiences. This release also includes "Mermaid," "Pearls," and "Feel No Pain."

Review (AllMusic) for Lovers Rock (2000) : Lovers Rock, the title of Sade's first album of the 21st century, could be taken on many levels. Never before has the singer infused more mainstream rock elements (prominent strummed guitars) into her music as evidenced by the first single, "By Your Side." That's not to say that she has eschewed her own tried-and-true brand of smoky, dusky ballads. The singer/songwriter is reunited with co-producer Mike Pela and musician/songwriters Andrew Hale, Stuart Matthewman, and Paul S. Denman; and Lovers Rock finds them all in fine form. "Somebody Already Broke My Heart," "Every Word," and "Lovers Rock" are vintage Sade.

Review (AllMusic) for Soldier Of Love (2010) : Sade's longest absence yet did not prevent their return from being an event. It at least seemed eventful whenever "Soldier of Love," released to radio a couple months prior to the album of the same title, was heard over the airwaves. Even with its brilliantly placed lyrical allusions to hip-hop past and present and its mature sound, the single stuck out on stations aimed at teens and twentysomethings, as well as points on the dial that court an older audience. It was the most musical and organic, while also the most dramatic yet least bombastic, song in rotation. Crisp snare rolls, cold guitar stabs, and at least a dozen other elements were deployed with tremendous economy, suspensefully ricocheting off one another as Sade Adu rewrote "Love Is a Battlefield" with scarred, assured defiance. While the song was an indication of its parent album's reliance upon organic instrumentation - the band's use of synthesized textures and programming is greatly diminished - it merely hinted at the dark, even fatalist, depth of heartache conveyed throughout the set. On "Bring Me Home," Adu is content in resignation ("Send me to slaughter/Lay me on the railway line"), while on "The Moon and the Sky," she projects a bruised and angered bewilderment ("You lay me down and left me for the lions"). The focus at least switches temporarily to a loved one on "In Another Time," in what resembles a love letter to (what is likely) a young daughter mistreated by members of both sexes ("Their whispers are hailstones in your face"; "Soon they'll mean nothing to you"). Although the bleakness is tempered with themes of survival and recovery, and (just) one song that is truly sweet ("Babyfather"), a fair portion of the album's lyrical content comes off as drained-sounding, only echoed with vanilla arrangements that are merely functional, restrained to a fault, greatly outstripped by "Soldier of Love." Lacking rhythmic hypnotism and relatable most to those who are experiencing solitude created by romantic desertion, this is not your mother's Sade album.