Soldier of Love (Sony Music 2010) is another prime example of Sade’s ability to connect with her audience as she sings about the complications of being in love, losing love and waiting for love again. Singing from the heart in her earthly alto voice, she envelopes the listener in an aura of mutual understanding that anyone who has ever been deeply in love can identify with.
Stuart Matthewman, Paul Denman and Andrew Hale Return to Effect Their Musical Visions
The session includes her long-time band mates Stuart Matthewman, Paul Denman, and Andrew Hale who returned to capture the intimate essence of the poetry Sade wanted set to a soulful mix of R&B, jazz and pop music. Their effectiveness is apparent and especially noteworthy as a contrast to Sade’s quiet but well- exposed sonorities.
For listeners attuned to the infinite quality of meditative values, the music here has that special calming effect. Soft, serene harmonic progressions, doubling and backing vocals by the band lend a plethora of human moods including joy, sorrow, loneliness, waiting, love and peace.
Masterful Lyrics Compliment the Emotional Expressions of the Music
Sade is a master lyricist who uses metaphor to its highest and best use. She uses these metaphors in the most compelling way and ties her style to the emotional expression of the music. On the title track, she sets the lyrics to a march beat and the rat-ta-tat of symbolic bullets played by the bass. She tells her listeners that she has lost the use of her heart but is still alive , a metaphor for overcoming the problems associated with love gone wrong and moving on.
On other songs, sadness is communicated through wailing blue notes. On Morning Bird she sings the lyrics - you are the morning bird who sang me into life everyday fly away - in such a sad tone that you will literally be moved to tears. This is an artist who has experienced pain and has survived to write about it. Throughout, her lyrics push the limits of love’s intricacies but always maintain balance with the music.
On The Safest Place she describes her heart as a peaceful place surrounded by streams and a wall that no one from hell could break through. She assures her loved one that their love is in the safest hiding place and that her heart has been a lonely warrior that’s been to war. These and other such inspired lyrics as those heard in The Moon and The Sky, Babyfather and Skin, communicate the meaningful relationships, spiritual values and moods that lie deep within this sensitive artist.
These love ballads are so beautiful and authentic that when Sade sings them in her special soft rock tempo, you immediately appreciate that she has not weighed these songs down with a lot of ornamentation. Her compositions are heartfelt but stylistic, emotional but accessible. Soldier of Love is probably her most important offering outside of Lover’s Rock.
Sade has endured in the face of love’s adversities and through this latest music she proves she is a Soldier of Love who has something to say.
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