Love Deluxe

by Sade

Stereo Review (3/93, p.83) - "...reason to rejoice: The sultry British-Nigerian diva is back in excellent style...Sade is intoxicating...this girl sizzles..."

Product Description:

Also available as a 3-pack with DIAMOND LIFE and PROMISE.

Sade: Sade Adu (vocals); Stuart Matthewman (guitar, saxophone); Andrew Hale (keyboards); Paul Spencer Denman (bass).

Additional personnel: Leroy Osborne (vocals); Tony Pleeth (cello); Martin Ditcham (drums, percussion).

Recorded at Studio Condulmer, Venice, Italy; Ridge Farm, Surrey, England; The Hit Factory, London, England; Image Recording, Los Angeles, California.

All tracks have been digitaly remastered.

"No Ordinary Love" won the 1994 Grammy Award for "Rhythm-and-Blues Duo or Group With Vocal."

With her smooth, smoky, soul-pop sound and elegant image, Sade became a ubiquitous figure in the mid 1980s, turning out hit after hit with her first three albums. After an unusually long gap of four years, she delivered the final album of her career's initial phase, LOVE DELUXE.

None of the songs here radically depart from the style Sade established on her earlier recordings; her soft, cooing, breathy vocal style--sort of a Julie London for the '80s--and mellow, jazz-tinged arrangements are still at the forefront. If anything, there's an even more languorous feel to such tunes as "No Ordinary Love" (which would be her last Top 40 hit) and "Cherish the Day." No matter how close to slow-jam/quiet-storm heaven things get, though, the low-key funk inflections that pop up periodically still keep things percolating--simmering but never boiling over. Sade wouldn't release another album until 2000's LOVER'S ROCK, but she left her fans plenty to remember her by with LOVE DELUXE.