Something Different For The Blog 🔗
I usually just go off about various “tech” subjects on the blog, but today I want to do something different. Since I’ve been unusually busy, I haven’t done anything too complicated that I care to document. So instead of making a usual post, I want to try my hand at a music review. To start with, we’re going to go over the kind of music I like, and how that will influence this review.
I LOVE Love 🔗
Most of my favorite music involves sappy love and romantic vibes. Smooth Jazz and RNB being my ultimate favorite types of music. I might be a terminally online loser, but the concept and sounds of love are the best (for me). This leads me into why I like this album I’ll be talking about. Love Deluxe combines smooth jazz, rnb, and pop into one beautiful album. Of course I’m gonna think this album is great, the name has Love in it!
With that explanation out of the way, we’re going to go into the actual review!
Review By Track 🔗
No Ordinary Love 🔗
The first song on the album is one of Sade’s most known songs, No Ordinary Love. It starts out with a deep, medium tempo drum beat with lots of reverb. Shortly afterwards, we go into the opening lyrics and main theme of this song:
I gave you all the love I got
I gave you more than I could give
Gave you love
I gave you all that I have inside
And you took my love
You took my love
Sade is explaining how she poured all of her heart, and then some, into this relationship. I especially like the line “You took my love”, as it implies that the other member of the party “took” her love. Which could mean he didn’t reciprocate, or that he took the love and affection for granted. She then continues to say how she keeps trying, and crying, for the love to continue, but alas the other lover has scorned her. She later reminisces on the love, remembering when they first met and how her lover made her life better. Now, she is continually trying to keep the relationship going, but “is falling”.
The lyrics themselves aren’t exactly that intricate, but the entire vibe of the instrumental track with the lyrics gets the point across effectively. The guitar crying and chugging in the background help build the momentum of the singing and represents some of the build up going on inside of Sade herself.
Speaking of the instrumental, it’s one of my favorite Sade songs for this very reason. The guitar work is great, it has amazing cheesy keys, the drums are just chefs kiss incredible. I don’t even mind that the song is 7 minutes long due to how well all of this comes together.
Feel No Pain 🔗
Contrasting the previous song being about a failed relationship, we go into an anthem for anyone laid off:
Mama been laid off
Papa been laid off
My brothers been laid off, for more than 2 years now
Oooooh can’t get a job
Billy can’t get a job
They’ve got to listen to the blues
The general theme of this song is to hold your head high in times of strife and hopelessness, specifically when dealing with an eternal job hunt that goes nowhere. The chorus of the song details what we should do for anyone struggling with any life event:
Help them to strive
Help them to move on
Help them to have some future
Help them to live long
Help them to live life
Help them to smile
Don’t let them stay home
And listen to the blues
So in the intro we have her saying that they have to “listen to the blues” to cope, but then in the chorus is stating that you need to help them live a good life and NOT “listen to the blues”. I always took that line about listening to the blues not being so much literal, but more about moping and dwelling on a tragic life event. Which is great advice to give. We have to lift each other up and try our best to make other people, ergo the world, better off instead of living in misery.
As for the instrumental on this track, it definitely stands out against the rest of the songs. It’s a floaty, borderline hip hop, beat that screams the era the track was produced (1992). It’s kind of hard to describe this, but you’ll hear the song and know exactly what I mean.
I Couldn’t Love You More 🔗
Take me by the hand, come on
Be my darling, be the one
I wouldn’t want to lay or ever love with another
If everyone in the world
Could give me what I wanted
I wouldn’t want for more than I have
I couldn’t love you more if I tried
The premise of this song is so straightforward there’s hardly anything to even say. Sade has found the perfect lover, who she wants to remain the same person, as they are perfect in her eyes. She goes as far to say that no matter what anyone could give her, it means nothing, because she’s already found the one to be with. This is definetely a great track to play for your significant other on a romantic evening to show that they are always more than enough for you (hint hint).
As for the instrumental, it’s another pure 90’s romance ballad. Drum machine beats backing pads and piano chords, with a sax being featured near the end to tie the bow on hitting all of the key notes. The drums actually go quite hard on this track, and I could see them being used on a rap album.
Like A Tattoo 🔗
This track takes a drastic turn from the previous songs in multiple ways. There is no chorus, and this is not a love song about Sade’s life. According to Sade, this song is about a man she met in a bar in New York at a bar:
A long time ago, I met a man in a bar in New York. He told me his story. This is his song. It’s about war and what he had to go through.
The instrumental is much more sad, somber in tone. There is no drum beat, it’s all guitar, piano, and vocals. Sade starts out by explaining the man told idealized versions of his life, but that they are “heavy with the burden of truth”, which means the true nature of man, and death. She follows it by stating that his dreams have been broken by the burden of his youth, or his service.
The soldier endured this life for 14 years, had his atrocities witnessed by others, all of which left him hungry for life and thirsty for the river. He then describes the man he killed in war, who was just like him. Hungry for life, thirsty for the river.
The final verse of the song describes how this has affected him in the long term:
Like the scar of age
Written all over my face
The war is still raging inside of me
I still feel the chill
As I reveal my shame to you
I wear it like a tattoo
This is a permanent part of him now, worn like aging skin or a tattoo. The war is still going on inside of him. Once you endure something so horrific, it never quite leaves you. He feels cold and regretful as he shares his story with Sade, full of shame for what he’s done.
Overall this is one of the best songs on the album albeit it doesn’t really fit into the theme of the rest of the album at all.
Kiss Of Life 🔗
If there’s one song on this album you’ve likely heard, it’s this one. Breaking from the overly depressing tone of the previous track, we go into a ballad about how a lover she has found is angelic and true in their love. This also features one of my favorite lines Sade ever song, describing the “color of love”
There must have been an angel by my side
Something heavenly led me to you
Look at the sky
It’s the colour of love
Throughout the song she describes how the kiss from her lover gave her passionate feelings for life, even calling it (as the title says) The Kiss of Life.
The instrumental is very similar to the rest, featuring the same instruments as previous. But in a much brighter tone all around. The sax solos also have a very soft feel compared to previous songs where the theme was more dramatic. Another key moment in this song is in the first three lines of the outro:
You wrapped me up in the colour of love
In the moonlight, baby
It must have been an angel came down from above
Cherish the Day 🔗
This one starts out with a crying guitar and a medium tempo drum beat (like other ones!) The opening chorus conveys the meaning of this entire track:
You’re ruling the way that I move
And I breathe your air
You only can rescue me
This is my prayer
If you were mine
If you were mine
I wouldn’t want to go to heaven
She’s desperate for the love of this other. She’s trying to do anything to capture his attention, can “only be rescued” by him, is praying to God for his love. And if she achieves it, she doesn’t even need God, because his love is better than an eternal life in paradise. She wants to “Cherish the Day” that she finally gets her dream love. And if she gets it? She:
I won’t go astray
I won’t be afraid
Won’t run away
Won’t shy
She’ll do whatever it takes to keep and continue that love for as long as possible. This is a strong song for conveying devotion and desire for another. An anthem for unrequited love.
Pearls 🔗
This track, similar to “Like a Tattoo”, breaks the general romance themes of the album. It’s about a woman in Somalia who is struggling to survive in a horrific situation of poverty. To survive, she’s trying to scavenge anything to be able to afford enough just to live. The chorus also has a very strong contrast of the life we live compared to the one people living in abject poverty globally experience:
She cries to the heaven above
There is a stone in my heart
She lives a life she didn’t choose
And it hurts like brand-new shoes
Hurts like brand-new shoes
In moments of desperation, the woman screams to the heavens for salvation. Her heart is cold from enduring years of struggle. It’s a life she never wanted and had no choice in. Which Sade compares to how it “hurts like brand new shoes”, which is obviously nothing in comparison to the pain this woman is facing. It also shows how materialistic our world is, when some people are “dying to survive”.
The instrumental on this track is purely violin with very light guitar work at the end. Sad, depressing, a reminder that the world is full of people worse off than us, and are struggling. And we continue to live and ignore it.
Bullet Proof Soul 🔗
This is my favorite track on the entire album. The intro featuring a killer drum beat and piano ensemble, with some saxaphone as well to help cement the mood. The theme of this song is that Sade was deeply in love with a selfish individual. She “rarely saw a love that true”, but it wasn’t enough for him. She would climb a mountain to make sure he didn’t fall himself, and she would give her life to give him a reason to keep on going. Which goes into the refrain and bridge of the song and how he reacted to this love:
You kept on thinking
You were the only one
Too busy thinking
Love is a gun
Hit me like a slow bullet
Like a slow bullet
Took me some time to realize it
His selfishness and rejection made Sade realize he was wielding love like a weapon. When he scorned her for the last time, she compares the pain like a slow bullet piercing her body. And how it took time for her to realize the pain and damage this relationship had caused her. The meaning is finalized in the actual chorus:
I know the end before
The story’s been told
It’s not that complicated
But you’re gonna need a bulletproof soul
She’s heard this story a million times, and likely experienced it multiple times herself. The scenario is straightforward (not that complicated), but to deal with such rejection and pain you need to develop a “bullet proof soul”. Hardening your heart and soul towards others so as to not be vulnerable to this kind of pain ever again. The final verse says her lover was trigger happy, who had no warnings for her or let her be free. One of the last pairs of lyrics in the song also bring in a predator / prey dynamic:
I came in like a lamb
But I intend to leave like a lion
Even though she was innocent in the beginning of this relationship, she will leave it courageous and strong like a lion. Whoever this dude is will not get the best of her.
Mermaid 🔗
This is the closing track of the album and purely instrumental. Featuring multiple guitars with effects, random bells, saxaphone, and piano altogether to make a slow jam ballad that ties a bow on the album overall. She’s had a long, complicated relationship with love, but she remains free and flowing like a mermaid in the ocean.
The song title itself is also a reference to the music video for No Ordinary Love, which portrays the story of The Little Mermaid as an analogy for a love you’re willing to sacrifice anything for. With Sade being the mermaid that tries to save and be in a relationship with a sailor who leaves her.
In Closing 🔗
I didn’t go too much into the instrumentals beyond what instruments they contained, but it goes without saying that this album perfectly encapsulates early 90’s production. From the guitars, the drums, the mix, it’s pure 90s nostalgia. This is probably one of the reasons I like it so much, 80’s and 90’s jazz derivitives are some of my favorite music ever. Because I love cheesy production and music in general. This album transcends all that though to be a true force of nature on its own, and one that propelled Sade to international fame. I would highly recommend listening to this at least once in your life, even if you hate sappy love songs.