Promise

Sade

album cover

No Taboo Sweeter

Led by Nigerian-born beauty Sade Adu, the band known as Sade slithered onto the radio with the conga-spiced "Smooth Operator" in 1985. It was like a direct beam from Planet Eros: Here, in the age of synths, was an earthy essence as creamy as day spa body butter, with breathy vocals and melodies shimmering like satin sheets. Those desperate for something new to put next to Barry White in the romantico CD changer fell immediately for this aural aphrodisiac, cool and sophisticated and perfect for candlelight. Record execs had a term for it: "lifestyle music."

That first album, Diamond Life, was a bit erratic. By the follow-up, Promise, Sade and her gifted jazz-honed band of Brits fully refined the sound, by balancing vaguely exotic rhythmic undulations against catchy, wistfully sung hooks designed for the radio. Like "Smooth Operator," this album's lead single uses ersatz Latin rhythm, but "The Sweetest Taboo" is much more dramatic, a procession of catchy refrains propelled by hotel-lounge samba. The whole record percolates gently; often the only interruptions are Sade's sighs of rapture. And where earlier vocals are tentative, by the forlorn torch song "Is It a Crime," Sade sounds fully in control, communicating in a language of hurt bewilderment. The understatement she radiates serves the music well: Promise is an oasis of calm, one of few genuinely subtle records to emerge from the mostly shrill middle '80s.

Genre: R&B
Released: 1985, Epic
Key Tracks: "Is It a Crime," "The Sweetest Taboo," "Jezebel"
Catalog Choice: Love Deluxe
Next Stop: Beth Orton: Central Reservation
After That: Dido: No Angel
Book Pages: 668–669

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About 1,000 Recordings

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