And after all this time...

Timing is everything, but that's especially true with Sade. The singer/band/singer-band's sixth album, Solider of Love is strewn with references to time passed ("I could have been falling, falling all these years," "Still wait for love to come, turn it all around," "In another time, in another place..."), and with good reason: it's been 10 years since Sade's last album, Lovers Rock. If you know anything about Soldier of Love, you already know this -- even without the lyrical references to time, even without that perfect title track of a first single catching us up immediately and melodramatically ("I've lost the use of my heart, but I'm still alive," goes the first line), that decade of relative silence is branded on Soldier by virtually anyone who's written or even spoken about it ("About time!" we say). It's the music listener's imposed concept on an album that is mostly about being lovelorn and meh and pretty.

(Going forward, I'll use the pronoun "she" to refer to Sade, with full acknowledgment that this is also the name of her band, and with full acknowledgment of how confusing this is, especially since that even within her persona-free existence, she eclipses everything in her wake.)

Indeed, context practically does more to define Soldier than its contents do - as a warm, hearty mush of quiet storm, reggae, alt country, vague doo wop and the politest, most laconic dance beats possible, it's as quaint as your mother's stew, a dish that could have been served any time in the past 20 years (you know how moms hold onto recipes). The particulars seem less important than the moody whole. It is (very slowly) coming into focus that if you've heard one Sade album, you've heard them all, provided that she keeps her voice in order.

She, of course, has (under-use has its advantages). It's always the star of the show, that perfect murmur that has simultaneous notes of rumble and reedy. So sweet, airy and pervasive, it's like music translated into perfume translated back to music. Sade and her crew work reverently to display that voice in as transparent of an encasing as possible. Sade sings amongst skeletons of musical genres and sounds more haunting for it. Indeed, my favorite Soldier track, "Morning Bird," finds Sade almost free-associative, accompanied by little more than a piano, a tambourine flutter and a intermittent bass drum. It sounds just as primal as her astounding pipes.

That Soldier of Love could have happened at any time, though, does not lessen its worth. On the contrary, this is her allotted noise for the decade, and that's meaningful. Perhaps if this were another in a string of sound-alike albums released a few years apart, it'd be easy to take for granted, but because I love her voice and otherworldly cool, I cherish the day that Sade graces us with her presence. I find myself less likely to write off what is objectively more creative treading water than advancement, because this is the Sade we'll have to work with for a long while.

A fundamental of value is that scarcity increases worth. Though Sade takes the chance of being forgotten by spacing her albums as she does (Soldier of Love arrives 10 years after Lovers Rock, which arrived eight years after Love Deluxe, which arrived four years after Stronger Than Pride), she's also capitalizing on absence making the heart grow fonder, however inadvertently (the bearded lady didn't do anything to force her follicles, yet they provide a hell of an angle). More and more, I appreciate those who take their time to get it right: I prefer an occasional blah to incessant harmonizing with modern communication's constant yammering of blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah. This weekend's New York Times profile on Sade obviously spends much time discussing time, as well as Sade's cloaked persona. I'm wary of anyone who claims to be wary of fame while releasing high-profile media (no matter how infrequently), but Sade walks the walk better than most by retreating into what she jokingly refers to as her "cave" between projects. I'm so used to people complaining about their fame on record or in front of cameras that something more implicit like Sade's partial recluse is refreshing. But then, even when she was turning out Top 10 hits in her commercial heyday of the '80s, she was always an antidote to pop culture's louder, faster ways, easy-going oddball that she is. Time has done little to change that.

Comments

[Sarah]

Great post. Can't wait to listen.

[Crystal]

Great review once again Rich: btw "Morning Bird," is my favorite track too!

[Lisa]

I can't get past the awful photoshopping on the cover. What the hell did they do to her back?

[banjiboi]

Beautifully written post, Rich. Without having listened to the album, I already feel a connection.

Bonus: Watching her perform live on BET's 106 & Park (Can those children be saved after all??????????????).

Will those children be saved after all

[Jon]

Great post, and I'm new to this blog and really enjoy it.

This album is classic Sade - I wouldn't expect anything else. I don't tune into her for surprises :-)

[Alexa]

I used to listen to Sade a lot as a kid (Love Deluxe in particular), and as a result I think she had a huge hand in my creative growth and my image of sexuality. I'm so freaking excited about this album.

[Bud]

They were playing Promise at a restaurant last week. Aside from a few instrument sounds, it still feels timeless. I started talking about how good Lover's Rock was and how infrequent Sade's releases are.

I am so excited to hear about this new one. If it weren't for this blog it probably would have been 2 more years before I found out.

[jeremy]

Uh . . . so you like it?

[Kim]

I must get a copy. I have loved her since the beginning, and listened to "Smooth Operator" (my favourite song to sing at karaoke) 3x last week for no particular reason and was thinking: "I'd love a new Sade album" not knowing that one was imminent!

[Meka]

Damn Lover;s rock came out in 2000?

I bought that album 7 years late then...

[chael]

"cherish the day" :)

[AntBee]

Brilliant review Rich!

[RP]

It's probably good to be wary of complaints of fame but I don't get bothered by them. The way I see it, everyone complains about their job. There's no such thing as a job that doesn't have something about it that sucks. That's why someone's paying you to do it instead of doing it themselves.

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Congratulations on a well written, interesting and superb blog!

[Winstrol]

There is such a big pause but anyway I am going to listen to their last album

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