Sade’s Diamond Life: A Singular Standard
4
By The Skinny Critic
Audiences haven’t been mistaking Sade these last 30 years as a a backing band for jazz vocalist Adu. No, Sade is something else entirely that still confounds convention 30 years on. Yes, they’re obviously informed by jazz but what they make is great soul music, cleaner than anyone has probably ever done it. The approach is minimal, almost spartan: there is never a wasted note, accent, vocal, or bass line. Ms. Adu sings straightforward always in time, always on pitch, never trying to oversell the sentiment. One gets the sense she’s in fact doing the steely opposite, trimming the wick on a blue flame, trying with all her composure to keep emotions, pain, and heartache on a low boil. Yes, one can feel distance in the delivery, as though Adu gives herself space and time to get over hurts, just like you or I. This allows for a clean, cool and pensive delivery, as opposed to an overwrought gutfest. The result is that however measured Adu's tone, for over 30 years, she has never ever rang false, Sade occupies a singular position in music such that they exists almost outside of the concept of time or convention. There has never really been a popular band like them that existed before or since. For over 30 years, they’ve maintained a sterling run of peerless quality in musical craftsmanship and singular soul. Indeed a Diamond is forever,
