FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Sade – Diamond Life
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IT is not often that we get…
some Sade news, as her last studio album, Soldier of Love, was released in 2010 – and there is no word whether we will ever get another album from her. Maybe to mark ten years since that album came out, there are plans to release a boxset of all her albums. Variety explain in more detail:
“Sade has new product on the way: a six-disc vinyl boxset, titled “This Far,” is set for release on Oct. 9.
Packaged in a white casebound box, the collection includes all of Sade’s acclaimed studio albums — from 1984’s “Diamond Life,” “Promise” (1985), “Stronger Than Pride” (1988), “Love Deluxe” (1992) and “Lovers Rock” (2000) to 2010’s “Soldier Of Love” — each remastered at London’s Abbey Road Studios.
The Sony Music set was created in close collaboration with Sade and band members Stuart Matthewman (saxophone/guitar), Andrew Hale (keyboards) and Paul Spencer Denman (bass). They worked alongside Abbey Road mastering engineer Miles Showell and longtime co-producer Mike Pela.
Revisiting the audio, the band and Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios worked from high resolution digital transfers of the stereo master mixes, from the original studio recordings, remastered at half-speed using Miles’ own unique restored Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe, to perform the 12 sides of vinyl lacquer cuts. The elaborate, half-speed mastering process produced exceptionally clean and detailed audio whilst remaining faithful to the band’s intended sound. No additional digital limiting was used in the mastering process, so the six albums benefit from the advantage of extra clarity and pure fidelity, preserving the dynamic range of the original mixes for the very first time”.
It is exciting that we will be able to own that boxset, and I hope Sade’s work is introduced to a lot of new people. Diamond Life is her remarkable debut from 1984. Sade Adu, in my view, is one of the greatest British artists of the past forty years. I don’t think she has not released anything other than brilliant albums since her debut, but I think Diamond Life is her finest work. Sade studied Fashion and later modelled before she started doing back-up vocals for the British band, Pride. After a while, various demos and performances led to her being spotted and signed to the Epic label. Recorded over a six-week period in 1983, that fusion of Jazz, Soul, and Pop, married to an incredible voice announced Sade as a major talent to watch! Although the lyrics in Diamond Life revolve mainly around the highs and lows of love, there is so much variation and texture in the album. The compositions are varied and, with Sade co-writing all but one track on the album (except Why Can’t We Live Together), there is something very real and personal about the songs. One can wait until the boxset comes out to get Diamond Life on vinyl, but you can buy it now, and experience one of the best debut albums of the 1980s. I like the blend of the upbeat and more laidback. The production (by Robin Millar) is quite slick and polished, but I think it works really well on the album.
Diamond Life is an album that helped begin a wave of great Neo Soul releases. After Sade’s Diamond Life in 1984, there followed albums from Soul II Soul and Lisa Stansfield that had elements of that album and the sounds fused. In terms of reviews, Diamond Life was met with widespread acclaim. Here is what AllMusic wrote in their review:
“When Sade released Diamond Life in their native U.K., they were already a kind of sensation. The band had scored hits with their first singles, the smoldering Top Ten ballad "Your Love Is King" and the perseverant soul anthem "When Am I Going to Make a Living," both of which only faintly resembled anything else on the chart. Magazines such as The Face and Smash Hits had published cover features, intensifying anticipation for the album. Diamond Life not only distanced Sade farther outside any context in which they were placed, whether it was the sulking sophisti-pop fraternity or the increasingly mechanized realm of contemporary R&B, but also fulfilled the promise of the singles that preceded it. Rhythms that sensitively ripple and pulse at their most active, topped with deceptively cool vocals from Sade Adu -- all coated with a luster -- have a way of obscuring the depth of the material to casual listeners. "Smooth Operator," the first in a series of sketches about various characters, regards a jet-setting playboy who leaves his conquests as amnesiacs and (much like the band) "moves in space with minimal waste."
Elsewhere is the turnabout tale "Frankie's First Affair," where Adu's disappointment with the protagonist verges on anguish, and the grim "Sally," a nickname/metaphor for the Salvation Army, sheltering broken men ruined by addiction and poverty. Adu breaks from third-person narratives with "Cherry Pie," lamenting the loss of a lover who was "as wild as Friday night." When Adu belts "You broke my heart!" it's but one of many lines expressed with enough purpose and force to invalidate the belief that she is an aloof performer. A sinewy and compatible cover of Timmy Thomas' 1972 hit "Why Can't We Live Together" affirms that Sade are indeed soul aesthetes concerned with more than creating a mood and projecting glamour”.
I just want to finish with an article from Classic Pop Magazine, who spotlighted Sade as the face of 1984. It is a great article, and we learn more about Sade’s start and, whilst her music suggests a certain luxury and richness, her living situation at the time – or just before – was in stark contrast:
“Despite being a student at one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, Sade’s time there was anything but privileged. She was living in a disused fire station being used as a squat with a few like-minded creatives, including her then-boyfriend and future journalist, Robert Elms. With home life proving anything but a comfortable set- up, Sade spent her evenings out on London’s bustling club scene, frequenting nightspots such as Blitz and The Wag Club.
A creative wonderland frequented by future superstars, the cultured clubbers included Boy George, Steve Strange, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Spandau Ballet and countless others who would go on to be major forces in the worlds of music, fashion and art. A scene where the outlandish was applauded and the garish glamour of New Romanticism was at its zenith, Sade’s understated exotic beauty made her stand out in a sea of club freaks.
The combination of Sade’s striking beauty and impeccable style credentials paired with the band’s seductive, jazz- inflected soul music proved to be a winning formula. With three Top 40 hits, Diamond Life would go on to sell over six million copies worldwide and be named Best British Album at the 1985 BPI Awards. Sade was a phenomenon.
Finding it increasingly difficult to deal with all the fame and after being subject to a minor backlash, prompted by misguided judgment that the music was designed for the elitist “Yuppie” set, Sade retreated from the public gaze. “Because of my family history, that was something that really irked me,” Sade told The Sunday Times. “And it so annoyed me, because we were secretly giving money we didn’t even have yet to Arthur Scargill and the striking miners”.
Go and grab a copy of Diamond Life, as it is a stunning debut from one of the most loved artists ever. I cannot wait for that boxset to come out but, before then, I think people should go out and buy Diamond Life on vinyl as it is an album that is so good that you’ll…
WANT to own it twice.