SADE (HELEN FOLASADE ADU) — Promise (review)

SADE (HELEN FOLASADE ADU) — Promise album cover Album · 1985 · RnB Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Sean Trane
While never groundbreaking, Sade’s debut Diamond Life album in the mid-80’s was quite a pleasant and refreshing surprise, especially for those seeking a jazz-lite pop. The follow-up, released the next year was called Promise, and in some was it was in the musical continuity of DL, but failed to match its title’s name. Same line-up, same soft-silky voice, almost the same kind of music proposed, but let’s be honest, the surprise was gone. Yes some of these tracks were hits, partly due to their delightful frontwoman’s presence in some MTV clips getting frequent rotation exposure. However, if the band was never a major instrumental powerhouse, preferring the conventional song format, the debut did feature some space for the three compadres to fit some interesting and impeccable musical interplay, there is not much of it on the present album, despite the (somewhat) soppy instrumental Punch Drunk’s presence, which only feels like another average track where they would’ve forgotten to push the vocal cursors up on the mixing board. And I dare say that some tracks could fill the description of filler-material, especially around the end of the flipside.

Sweetest Taboo or Never As Good were indeed hammered into unsuspecting victim’s brains into submission, and to be sure, there were worse musical torture than that in that dreaded decade. Promise did feature the same kind of soundscapes than previously, albeit a tad more synthetic, despite still using some analogue keyboards and but also resorting to what seems like synthetic rhythms. With a few brassy guests and some drums and percussion help as well (Sade didn’t have a permanent drummer back then apparently), the British quartet seems to be in gentler and softer mood, because some tracks are indeed quite slow. Obviously playing the romantic (but occasionally cheesy and over-sweetish) card, something quite easy, given the stunning singer’s physical presence and her silky-smooth voice. Difficult to imagine Helen’s voice fronting a heavy metal band, right?! Other faliliar traéck are Is It A Crime or JezebelAlthough still a fine jazzy-pop album, as would all of the group’s future releases, one can’t help but experienced a déjà-entendu feel with a slight-ier 80’s sound, moving somewhat away from their Steely Dan-type of influence. Definitely still a worthy listen, but if you own DL and are a tad more demanding than the average Joe, one can’t help but feeling that all of their others albums are repeat performances.

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