Love Deluxe

Performer: Sade
Engineer: Chris Lord-Alge; Mike Pela
Producer: Mike Pela; Sade
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: 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." Personnel: Leroy Osbourne (vocals, background vocals); Sade Adu (vocals); Stuart Matthewman (guitar, saxophone); Tony Pleeth, Anthony Pleeth (cello); Andrew Hale (keyboards); Martin Ditcham (drums, percussion). Audio Mixer: Chris Lord-Alge. Audio Remasterer: Tom Coyne. Recording information: Image Recording, Los Angeles, CA; Ridge Farm, Surrey, England; Studio Condulmer, Venice, Italy; The Hit Factory, London, England. Photographer: Albert Watson. Unknown Contributor Role: Nick Ingman. Arrangers: Sade; Nick Ingman. 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.

Village Voice (3/1/94, p.5) - Ranked #31 in the Village Voice's 1993 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. 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..." NME (Magazine) (11/28/92, p.29) - 7 - Very Good - "...a fine album... the songs drift by and have proper tunes and neat arrangements...a good thing in a wicked world and, quite literally, the soul of subtlety..."

A singer whose music is as exotic and elegant as her image, Sade utilized sultry, jazz-tinged vocals and smooth pop arrangements to become, deservedly, one of the most successful international stars of the 1980s. Her voice is a subtle thing, breathy and intimate, and her music mostly reflects that. She prefers a whisper to a scream, and most of her hits tend to simmer and percolate. She's also demonstrated real songwriting ability ("No Ordinary Love," "The Sweetest Taboo") and great taste in covers (Percy Mayfield's classic blues "Please Send Me Someone to Love" and Timmy Thomas's 1973 minimalist proto-disco hit "Why Can't We Live Together").

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