Sade - X2 (2005)

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 hear the bangs, crashes and whirrs that most music made in 1984, it is amazing to hear how pure and unaffected the debut album by Sade, Diamond Life, still sounds. Emerging from St Martin’s Art School in London, the band 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 making the Soho in-crowd of the early 80s an in-crowd for the world. With well-honed originals and a cover of Timmy Thomas’ rare groove swamp ballad Why Can't We Live Together?, Sade made explicit both the musical elitism and joy of discovery of that era.
Smooth Operator is a perfect capture of this heady, glossy time. Adu's voice curls round the recording like smoke. Your Love Is King – surprisingly, their only ever UK top 10 single – is sweetness writ large. There’s the dispassionate funk of Hang on to Your Love and the penniless optimism of When Am I Going to Make a living?, which provided a mellow critique of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain ("Haven’t I told you before that we’re hungry for a life we can’t afford?"). The funk of Cherry Pie is reminiscent 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 used by its myriad listeners as a shortcut 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 hugely successful career in the US and put Sade on the bill at Live Aid, and still no-one really 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 centre 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 cross between light jazz and a low-key nightclub set of torch songs. Sade's detached, understated vocals are the epitome of cool, and while 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 instantly recognizable songs, and "Never As Good as the First Time," another pop and R&B chart hit. There is rarely a misstep 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.