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Rating: Since the very beginning, the band’s name has been associated with an elegant and sophisticated musical genre, thanks to the sinuous melodies accompanied by the wonderful voice of Sade Adu, a true icon of beauty and charisma in the 1980s.
Love Deluxe is an album born in a complicated period for Stuart Matthewman & Co., because after a long string of successes that brought them fame and money, they found themselves at a crossroads: to prove that they could maintain their global leadership in soul/smooth jazz music with strong R&B influences. Diamond Life, Promise, and Stronger Than Pride—released in 1984, 1985, and 1988 respectively—were a very heavy legacy to carry, and four years later, in 1992, it was far from obvious that they would release an album that achieved good public acclaim and included noteworthy tracks: goal achieved, but not completely.
The album opens with No Ordinary Love, an absolute Sade classic, and although the melody is spot-on, I personally find it borders on the cloying; 7' and 20" based on the same constant bass/drum rhythm seem a bit too much, honestly. The real heart of the album is the trio of I Couldn’t Love You More, Like A Tattoo, and Kiss Of Life, where we find the best version of Sade from the '80s, with poignant and rarefied melodies—three songs that truly express the band’s compositional maturity. The album continues with decent but unconvincing fillers compared to the rest of the record. The closing is entrusted to the instrumental Mermaid, seasoned with ethnic nuances, though Sade’s voice is notably absent.
Of course, one cannot help but reflect: the 1980s wave of that genre has been orphaned by all those bands—Style Council, Matt Bianco, Everything But The Girl, Simply Red, etc. Where could they have ended up?
Ultimately, it’s a fine record with some very high points and others less so, sung by a performer who, in some way, made us fall in love back then.
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