Sade - Diamond Life (1984) [Japan, 1st Press]

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Sade - Diamond Life (1984) [Japan, 1st Press]

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Sade - Diamond Life (1984) [Japan, 1st Press]

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"Diamond Life" is the debut studio album by English band Sade. It was first released in the United Kingdom on 16 July 1984 by Epic Records and in the United States on 27 February 1985 by Portrait Records. After studying fashion design, and later modelling, Sade Adu began backup singing with British band Pride. During this time Adu and three of the original members of "Pride" Paul Anthony Cook, Paul Denman and Stuart Matthewman left the group to form their own band called Sade. Following various demos and performances, Sade received interest from record labels and later signed to Epic. Recording for the album began in 1983 at The Power Plant in London and took a total of six weeks to complete. The album's content was written by the group Sade whilst the production was handled by Robin Millar. A total of fifteen songs were recorded for the album with the use of live instruments that used sonically experimental material. The album contained a variety of musical elements including soul, jazz and sophisti-pop, with lyrics revolving mainly around themes of love. The album spawned four singles, including the hit singles "Your Love Is King" and "Smooth Operator". Upon release, Diamond Life was met with acclaim from music critics, and went on to win the Brit Award for Best British Album in 1985. Commercially, the album was also a success, charting highly in the UK and US, and was later certified multi-platinum in both regions. "Diamond Life" went on to sell over 6 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the top-selling debut recordings of the era, and became the best-selling debut by a British female vocalist, a record that stood for twenty-four years. Recording for the album began in 1983 at The Power Plant in London and took a total of six weeks to complete. The album's content was written by the group Sade whilst the production was handled by Robin Millar. A total of fifteen songs were recorded for the album with the use of live instruments that used sonically experimental material. The album contained a variety of musical elements including soul, jazz and sophisti-pop, with lyrics revolving mainly around themes of love. The album spawned four singles, including the hit singles "Your Love Is King" and "Smooth Operator". Upon release, "Diamond Life" was met with acclaim from music critics, and went on to win the Brit Award for Best British Album in 1985. Commercially, the album was also a success, charting highly in the UK and US, and was later certified multi-platinum in both regions. "Diamond Life" went on to sell over 6 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the top-selling debut recordings of the era, and became the best-selling debut by a British female vocalist, a record that stood for twenty-four years.

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Sade - Diamond Life (1984) [Japan, 1st Press]

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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.

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Sade - Diamond Life (1984) [Japan, 1st Press]

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Sade - Diamond Life (1984) [Japan, 1st Press]

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