Soldier of Love (album)

Background

Following an eight-year hiatus, Sade released their fifth studio album, Lovers Rock, which became a commercial success selling 3.9 million copies in the United States by February 2010. To promote the album Sade and the band embarked on their fifth concert tour entitled Lovers Rock Tour. Following the release of Lovers Rock (2000), Sade took a 10-year hiatus, in which she raised her daughter. During this time, Sade made only one rare public appearance in 2002 to accept an OBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. She then moved Gloucestershire countryside where, in 2005, she bought a run-down, stone-built cottage to renovate near Stroud. Sade stated that she was in no rush to release music and was not interested in releasing music just for the sake of selling a product.

Recording

Following the hiatus Sade began to collect ideas for studio sessions and in 2008 a call was made by Adu asking for the band to re-group and begin to record, following this the band met up and began recording at Peter Gabriel's Real World studio. It was the first time the four principals had met up since the Lover's Rock Tour wrapped in 2001. Bassist Paul Denman de-camped from Los Angeles, where he had been managing his teenage son's punk band, Orange. Guitarist and saxman Stuart Matthewman interrupted his film soundtrack work in New York, and keyboardist Andrew Hale gave up his A&R consultancy.

According to Billboard, the band had been working on the album throughout June 2009. At that time, Sony Music had not set a release date but it hoped to put the record out by the end of 2009. "She is in the studio and the album will come when it is ready", a source at Sony Music told Billboard. "You don't wait for years for one and then rush it." In a series of sessions at Real World, Sade sketched out the material for a new album which, they all felt, was shaping up to be their most ambitious. In particular, the sonic layering and martial beats of the title track, 'Soldier Of Love,' sounded quite different from anything they had previously recorded.

Hale said, 'The big question for all of us at the beginning was, 'Did we still want to do this and could we still get along as friends?' She's never, ever seemed to doubt what it was she wanted. You feel like you're all on this quest that's always been in the back of her mind. She's got more stamina than the rest of us.' In March 2009, American recording artist Maxwell, a fellow Sony Music recording artist and longtime friend and collaborator with Stuart Matthewman, sent a message to fans via his private Facebook page in which he indicated that he had heard some of Sade's new recordings, saying, "Trust me, it's so monolithic it'll shake you in your shoes!" Denman stated that because each member of the band lived on different continents and did not bring any completed songs into the studio, the writing and recording process took a long time. The album was completed in the summer of 2009, mainly at Real World studios. The cover art for the album were taken by Sophie Muller, in the zapotec ruins of Monte Albán, Oaxaca.

Release and promotion

In April 2011, the band began their Sade Live tour (also known as the Once in a Lifetime Tour or the Soldier of Love Tour). The tour visited Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia in support of Soldier of Love, as well as the band's second compilation album, The Ultimate Collection. This trek marks the band's first tour in nearly a decade. The tour ranked 27th in Pollstar's "Top 50 Worldwide Tour (Mid-Year)", earning over 20 million dollars. At the conclusion of 2011, the tour placed tenth on Billboard's annual, "Top 25 Tours", earning over $50 million with 59 shows.

Critical reception

Soldier of Love received generally positive reviews from music critics; it received an average score of 79 out of 100 from Metacritic. Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot wrote favorably of Sade Adu's singing, stating "she remains alluring and subtly rewarding, while still keeping the listener at a safe distance, as if she had even deeper secrets to guard." The Daily Telegraph's Tom Horan gave the album five stars and commented that its songs are "beautifully balanced between warmth and toughness, vulnerability and hauteur." The Observer's Kitty Empire called it a "triumph for quality over quantity." Jim DeRogatis of Chicago Sun-Times gave the album three out of four stars and complimented its "sophisticated and soulful grooves", stating, "Sade may not be giving us anything radically new, but it's a pleasure just to have her back doing what she's always done so well." Stephen M. Duesner of Paste called it Sade's "most musically adventurous collection to date, and also its most expansive and rewarding". Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club felt that the album "benefits from a divine sense of intimacy; Sade seems to be whispering secret thoughts directly into the listener's ears." Benjamin Boles of Now wrote that its production "sounds a bit tougher and chunkier than the band's early work, but the classic Sade vibe we love is still front and centre."

In a mixed review, AllMusic's Andy Kellman felt that the album's lyrical themes are bleak, writing that "a fair portion ... comes off as drained-sounding, only echoed with vanilla arrangements that are merely functional". Pete Paphides of The Times perceived a lack of "catchy tracks" as a weakness and called it "an album bordering upon ambient in its statuesque stillness". The Guardian writer Caroline Sullivan was ambivalent towards the group's "pop-soul" and "quiet storm" style on the album, but added that the "lushness and understatement" is balanced by "lyrics of surprising transparency". Despite calling its mood "morose" and expressing a mixed response towards its "bleakness and melancholy", All About Jazz critic Jeff Winbush viewed Soldier of Love as an improvement over Sade's previous album, Lovers Rock. MSN Music's Robert Christgau gave the album a one-star honorable mention, citing "Babyfather" and the title track as highlights, and quipped, "I'm glad she finally put some beats on her sang-froid, but by the time she gets around to setting Ghost up with a 16 he'll probably be out of the life."

At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2011, the title track won Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, while the song "Babyfather" was nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Commercial performance

Soldier of Love debuted at number four on the UK Albums Chart, selling 42,997 copies in its first week. It had sold 116,672 copies in the United Kingdom by May 2011, and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 22 July 2013. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 in the United States with first-week sales of 502,000 copies, becoming Sade's first number-one debut and second number-one album on the chart, as well as the best sales week for an album by a group since AC/DC's Black Ice entered the Billboard 200 at number one in November 2008 with 784,000 copies sold. It remained at number one for three consecutive weeks, selling 190,000 copies in its second week and 127,000 copies in its third. The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) within one month of its release, on 15 March 2010, and as of April 2011, it had sold 1.3 million copies in the US.

The album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart with first-week sales of under 20,000 units, spending three consecutive weeks atop the chart. The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) certified the album platinum on 24 March 2010, denoting shipments in excess of 80,000 copies. In France, Soldier of Love sold 18,986 copies to enter the French Albums Chart at number one. The album topped the charts in several other countries, including Belgium (Wallonia), Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, while peaking at number one on Billboard's European Top 100 Albums for four consecutive weeks. Soldier of Love had sold 2.3 million copies outside the UK by the end of 2010, becoming that year's second best-selling album worldwide by a British artist, behind Susan Boyle's The Gift.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Sade Adu.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Soldier of Love.