"Soldier Of Love"

Sade's hits, like "Smooth Operator," "No Ordinary Love" and "The Sweetest Taboo," were ubiquitous through the 1980s and 1990s, purring out of radios and lending ambience to countless lounges . . . As far as the music business was concerned, Sade might as well have been in some cave after 2002, when she and her band finished touring for their 2000 album, "Lovers Rock." She vanished from stages . . .

. "I love writing songs," she said. . . . For Sade, reticence is a matter of both temperment and songwriting strategy, "That's the trick in a way, like conjuring," she said. "You've got to allow so much to go in there. But it isn't just your own, because then it's T.M.I."---too much information---"and when you listen to the song you're thinking of the person rather than your own emotions." "If it's too attached to the performer," she added, "it pushes you away, it's a bit repulsive. Because that's theirs---it's not yours." [The new] "Soldier of Love" is another collection of slow, pensive songs, mostly in minor keys, often pondering lost love and uncertain journeys. The band takes pride in being proficient but not flashy . . .

. When Sade talks about songwriting she turns mystical. "It's "alchemical," an "out of body experience," an attempt to preserve insights from the "etheric moment" between wakefulness and dreams. And with the band working together where they can record at all times, "we are able to capture that in the studio, to capture it technically in the right frame so it sounds good," Sade said. "If you're only making an album every 10 years, it better be good," Sade said. [She worked in secret] Eventually Sony Music executives did learn that Sade was working again, and wanted the album released before Christmas of 2009. That deadline passed; The band finished the last mix of "Skin"---a song about a reluctant breakup, with acoustic guitars and Sade's close-harmony vocals in the foreground as eerie electronics and percussion ping in the distance . . .

. "If it's like a llighthouse to guide someone past the rocks, that's a great thing," she said.

[music news from "A Reluctant Return to the Spotlight", from the Arts in the New York Times of Feb 7, 2010.]