Sade claims it’s No Ordinary Love, but it kind of is. It’s the romantic kind most singers sing about, albeit a Deluxe version of it. The fact that not every song on the album fits that theme; Feel No Pain and Pearl deal with the stresses of poverty; throws things off a bit. That’s if individual concepts even matter when the music sounds this good.
The vocals, on all but the one song that doesn’t have any, are accommodated by what I’d describe as gentle mood music. It’s mostly jazzy quiet storm stuff, but a couple of songs, arguably the best ones, rely on not much more than a soundscape of strings. That said, while the set isn’t alluring enough to fall in Love with, I do like it.
my rating : 4 of 5
1992