|
|
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is no ordinary love...this is an album deluxe, July 29, 2003
I will admit a bit of inconsistency in my way of thinking. Yes, I was a bit put off by Stronger Than Pride because I was expecting another Promise or Diamond Life. Yet when I heard "No Ordinary Love" and heard that Paul Denman's opening throbbing bass and Sade's still-sensuous vocals, I was blown away. Maybe it was because it had been four years and there was a quiet storm needed to counter all the grunge that was crawling from the woodwork (no offense intended to that genre, BTW) So, yes, I accepted the fact that the quartet were a kind of light jazz/R&B hybrid, and "No Ordinary Love", with its yearning, appealing, and affirmation, "I keep crying/I keep trying for you baby/there's nothing like you and I, baby" was the best Sade song I'd heard since the Promise album."Feel No Pain" paints a moving portrait of a ghetto family's hardships. All the family has been laid off. Sade pleads for them, "Help them to live life/help them to smile/don't let them stay home and listen to the blues." Done in the group's new style, Andrew Hale's held-down backing synth chords provide the sordid atmosphere. The equating of a job with pride is emphasized in the two contrasting emotions: "do you know how that feels/to walk the street with your head held high/.../did you ever see a man break down?" The mid-paced and lush "I Couldn't Love You More" is another affirmation of romantic fealty, with piano chords and airy keyboards adding to the atmosphere. Simple lyrics, but effective. Stuart Matthewman's gentle guitars set the mood for the love lament of "Like A Tattoo". Keyboards come into play when the mood goes up a notch. The sound of the love celebration "Kiss Of Life" reminds me of some of their Promise material, such as "Tar Baby." The entire band's teamwork really shows up here, and Nick Ingman's strings really add to the loveliness of this tune. One of their mellower tunes, the love surrender "Cherish The Day" follows, with the airy keyboards and drums predominating. Must be some kinda man to elicit, "You're ruling the way that I move/you take my air." The melancholy and hearbreaking "Pearls", complete with Ingman's strings and a cello, is about a Somalian woman living a hard life, the blistering sun overhead, searching for pearls. "This is how she's dying/she's dying to survive," sings Sade, and at the same time, lauds her strength. "She lives in a world she didn't choose/and it hurts like brand new shoes." Sade's voice really reaches an emotional peak throughout the song, and especially when she sings "Hallelujah." The slow "Bullet Proof Soul" uses the love/gun analogy, and the woman says that love hit her like a slow bullet. She then warns the man that only a bullet proof soul can resist her. The instrumental "Mermaid" conjures up the deep blue ocean, and the otherwordly sounds the fantasy world of mermaids. I'm still not going to try to explain why I can handle their sound here and not on the previous album. All I can say is that it soothes me. Eight years and four albums and still the same lineup of Adu (vocals), Matthewman (sax), Denman (bass), and Hale (keyboards), so not bad at all. They are tighter and cohesive, yet I notice the gradual buildup of other players on the scene that really took shape in Stronger Than Pride, such as Leroy Osbourne (vocals) and Nick Ingman (string arrangements). I'm unaware of what a near-decade break did for Sade on Lover's Rock, but I'm sure to find out sometime in the future. So a "Pearls"-style "hallelujah" for Love Deluxe!
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
by Sade 
