The last time Sade had a new album out, there was a guy named Bush in the White House. Now, eight years later, the smooth operator returns with a new album of sensual ballads, Lovers Rock, just as another Bush is about to take office.
While some political observers lament a return of the same old, same old, fans of the Nigerian-born singer have gladly welcomed a fresh batch of takes on the labors of lost love.
Regardless of the presidential scandals and musical trends that have come and gone since her last studio album, 1992's Love Deluxe, one thing remains true of the enigmatic singer born Helen Folasade Adu: her honeyed voice is like a siren song to fans. With only slight stylistic changes marking each new collection of songs, Sade has sold more than 40 million albums since the mid-'80s, each marked by tales of heartache and longing, and none more spare and haunting than Lovers Rock.
With classic songwriting reminiscent of the heartbreak soul of Marvin Gaye, Sade proved to again be timeless, as Lovers Rock shrugged off the boy-band competition to debut at #3 on the U.S. Billboard charts, lodging itself in the top 20 ever since.
The 41-year-old singer, who got her first break in the early '80s fronting the English Latin soul band Pride, reveals little about her closely shielded private life on her fourth album. From the melancholy "All About Our Love," to the reggae-lilting, love-affirming first single, "By Your Side," Lovers Rock hews to the subjects of love lost, rejected and unreciprocated. One of the few exceptions is the trip-hoppy "Immigrant," a poignant plea for understanding in the face of prejudice.
From her signature first hit, 1984's "Smooth Operator," off her Diamond Life debut, to "The Sweetest Taboo," Sade has avoided trend-hopping. It's a pattern she told MTV Europe she's continuing on her latest release. "We're lucky that we have some platform already established that we can step back onto," she said. "We haven't ever adapted to fit in and even right at the very beginning we didn't really fit in. We have our own kind of course and that's the route we go. So we either sink or swim."
