Sade

 
In this era of reality television, when stars will do anything from documenting their plastic surgery to giving blowjobs in front of the camera, it’s an outright novelty when a celebrity can retain any air of mystery. Fantastically, the mystery of Sade remains safe and intact as she nears 30 years in the recording arts. And one thing has held true—she’s been able to totally vanish for great lengths of time (never seen on a red carpet and rarely surfacing in a tabloid) and always reemerge to sell millions of records and gain critical acclaim before disappearing again. An amazing feat!
 
But can Soldier of Love, her first new album in nearly a decade, still sell the millions (and be as well received) as her past efforts? 
 
Sade’s music has always been bittersweet—imbued with a sort of tug-of-rope tension between hope and despair. But Soldier finds Sade often more depressed than the world economy. Gone is the sultry, seductive romanticism that buoyed many of her past efforts—now replaced with a downtrodden, hardened, world-weary sensibility. Sade has cast herself as the Soldier of Love, and love is a perilous path of wounds and war. This is definitely her break-up album. Those looking for some new baby-making music will want to look elsewhere (like Sade’s earlier albums!)—after all, lines like “send me to slaughter/ lay me on the railway line/ I’m far away from God” (on  “Bring Me Home”) might leave your partner dead cold in the heat of passion.
 
Having said that, the album isn’t without moments of muted optimism, like “Long Hard Road,” where she assures listeners, “everything’s gonna be alright.” And on a joyful note, the Jamaican-infused “Babyfather,” she pays homage to a father who loves his child (and we wonder if it tells the sweet story of the conception of her own daughter after a 1996 affair with a Jamaican musician).
 
There are some wonderfully poetic lyrics (“You are the morning bird who sang me into life”) and some gorgeous songs, like opening track “The Moon and the Sky” and bluesy “In Another Time.” But they do get weighed down in the barrage of pity-party emotion.
 
Sentiment aside, considering the almost ten-year span between albums, we’d hoped for a bit of musical evolution. We may say her work is timeless, not needing to rely on modern gimmicks and technical gizmos to shine. But considering her once silky-smooth jazz-pop was Top 40 in the ’80s and ’90s (her 1984 debut, Diamond Life, sold more than a whopping 50 million copies worldwide), it’s hard not to think she’s in a rut and needing something more musically adventurous. (What could someone like The Bird and the Bee’s Greg Kurstin dream up for her?) After all, international intrigue and a sense of adventure was one of the strongest elements of her earlier work.
 
We’re not sure why Sade isn’t feeling the love and has gone to battle against romance this time around. But one thing we know for sure: it’ll always be a mystery.    N