Rocktrospectiva: The Smooth And Modern Soul Classic "Diamond Life" Turns 40

 

Released on 16 July 1984, "Diamond Life" was the debut studio album by English band Sade, althought the album was released on February 1985 in the United States, the story began when the fashion design student and model, Sade Abu, turned into the backup-singing with the band Pride, eventually three members of the band Paul Anthony Cook, Paul Denman and Stuart Matthewman left the group to form their own band called Sade. After various demos and performances, Sade received interest from record labels and signed to Epic. 

 

The recording for the album began in 1983 and took six weeks to complete. The album's content was written by the group Sade and the production was handled by Robin Millar. Fifteen songs were recorded. The album contained a variety of musical elements including soul, jazz and sophisti-pop, mostly with love lyrics. The album spawned four singles, "Your Love Is King", Hang On To Your Love", "Smooth Operator", & "When Am I Going To Make A Living". 

 

The first track recorded was "Sally" something about the Salvation Army, "When Am I Going To Make A Living", started by Sade on the back of a cleaning ticket after she picked her clothes up from the cleaners. She had no money and she wrote down that line, so producer Robin Millar, took out the best of the band who had never workd in a professional studio and only had demos and certain recordings, they recorded 15 songs, all written by Adu and the band except "Smooth Operator" which was written by Adu and Ray St. John. also a cover by Timmy Thomas "Can't We Live Together".

 

The lyric content was about love with jazzy textures and prominent basslines, smooth drums and guitars, also with heavy use of brass instruments and keyboards, and Sade vocals on the album were described and deliberately icy but thick and rich, deadpan and cold, the cross between the rock jazz and terse pop-soul melodies and jazzy harmonies to create a sultry, timeless nightclub ambiance, and you can notice that with the singles "Smooth Operator" with elementos of R&B, jazz, adult contemporary, pop and dance music, "Your Love Is King" is a smooth pop ballad, "Hang On To Your Love" is an intense sophistipop tune and the cover "Why Can't We Live Together" stirs on the same terms of sounds and elements. 

 

The album received a widespread acclaim from critics and it was a commercial success, reaching the No. 2 on the UK and No. 5 on Billboard 200, applauding Sade's taste concept and sound, the band had the ability to wrote songs enough soulful and jazzy with pop sound, turning this formula into something more appealing to fans from all those genres. through the years, the band has been awarded to feature the sophisti-pop style, with the incorporations elements of soul, pop, and smooth jazz, the band were part of that new wave, sophisti-pop and blue-eyed soul R&B British oriented bands from the late 80's and early 90s that had huge impact on pop music. 

 

Diamond Life Track List: 

 

1. Smooth Operator

2. Your Love Is King

3. Hang On To Your Love

4. Frankie's First Affair

5. When Am I Going To Make A Living

6. Cherry Pie

7. Sally

8. I Will Be Your Friend 

9. Why Can't We Live Together