European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 11, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Ice Queen of the Torch by Stephen Holden new York times today s pop climate of feverish image mongering in which the Public likes to invest significance in the changing hairstyles an wardrobes of its favorite stars is no especially sympathetic toward simplicity and understatement. That s one reason Why Sade the nigerian born English Singer whose music exemplifies Low keyed emotional balance and directness is widely mis perceived As a Chilly Enigma. The Singer who possesses the regal Good looks of a fashion Model and a Silky pop soul voice that complements her appearance has been unofficially anointed the ice goddess of dispassionate Torch music. Ever since smooth operator her first top-10 american hit in 1985, the Singer has been linked with the song and its glamorous music video portrayal of the Diamond life of playboys gaming tables and expensive indolent women. But if one listens closely to Sade s music the sensibility one discovers is almost the opposite of a Blase International Nomad. Like its predecessors Diamond life and Promise Sade s newest album stronger than Pride is an anomaly in a loud exhibitionist pop world. Quietly Lovely and seamlessly constructed it presents a series of Small Heartfelt nuances fashioned in a style that brings 50s Torch singing motown and Cool jazz inflections together in a blend that seems so natural it is easy to assume that such a mixture has always existed. It has t. Sade s music like that of a Large segment of mainstream English pop takes its Basic inspiration from motown. Her musical collaborations with her excellent band Stuart Matthewman guitar and saxophone Andrew Hale keyboards and Paul s. Denman Bass refine the richly textured rum native atmosphere of Marvin Gaye s records into a deceptively simple elegant International pop soul style that works As both foreground and background music. Like Gaye s mature records Sade s albums Are built around seamless rhythmic grooves in which the Singer s voice remains the emotional Center of Gravity. Where other English singers like George Michael Paul Young and Mick Hucknall of simply red attempt to re create the explosive passion of their favorite american soul singers Sade s subdued delivery Clear diction and laconic lyrical style maintain an attitude of reflective sensitivity. Hers is an especially English translation of a quintessential american style. One might even argue that Sade has taken a style that seemed to demand self dramatization and shown How it can be purged of its frantic excesses in favor of a softer conversational Mode of expression. Sade does not have a Large vocal Range. Her singing is As free of gospel Melissa As her Lyric writing is Bare of Street argot. The language in her songs is stripped of the Ain t a and baby baby a that stamp american pop soul music. What Sade has retained from american pop soul is a sparseness and intense rhythmic pulse that extend to both her singing and her Lyric writing. One of the primary lessons of the Rock Era and of soul music in particular is that fewer words can allow British Singer Sade s new album stronger than Pride is an anomaly in a loud exhibitionist pop world. A Singer to communicate More emotion More directly. In song after song on stronger than Pride Sade communicates feelings As no hyperbolic matters of fact. Whereas the songs on Sade s first two albums Diamond life and Promise told stories about friends and philosophize level heatedly about experience stronger than Pride is mainly a series of intimate reflections on love Friendship and commitment addressed to other people. Most of the songs describe the emotional Vicissitudes of an ecstatic relationship that in the album s second to the last Cut i never thought i d see the Day has crumbled. But for the most part the songs Are the hopeful expressions of a smitten Lover. I still really really love you love is stronger than Pride she asserts in the opening number from which the album takes its title. Paradise a Ballad with virtually no Melody carries the mood higher As the Singer sighs with Joy while coasting on a streamlined pop soul Groove. Haunt me the album s Ballad Centrepiece is a tender almost abject confession of Devotion that seems to waft up from a Pillow at High siesta. Sung against a glowing arrangement for classical guitar piano and strings Sade offers unconditional love and if you want to sleep i la be quiet like an Angel As quiet As your soul could be if you Only knew monday july 11,1988 you had a Friend like  clean heart the album s Only Story song tells the bittersweet Vignette of a Young Man from an impoverished family who is apprehended committing his first crime. A repeated line that echoes through the song Finger on the trigger for the years to come exemplifies Sade s method of building lyrics around simple reverberating phrases. In their sculpted precision the album s musical arrangements match Sade s lyrics and vocals. Not a note or inflection seems wasted. And in the album s sad hearted tone poem i never thought i d see the Day the interplay of electric piano saxophone and voice makes the song a romantic lament similar in mood to Gaye s just to keep you satisfied. For All its High gloss the music never sounds sterile. The rhythmic grooves Are Man made rather than machine driven and the instrumentation Woven sensitively illustrating Sade s lyrics and vocal turns of phrase. Shining through an album whose musical ingredients Are very carefully measured is Sade s singing. Intimate but not affect edly whispery like Julie London to whom she has been compared polished but not haughty soulful but not self pitying her tone measures resilience against vulnerability passion against reflection. The More one listens to stronger than Pride the More deeply one is drawn into a world of feeling that is no less generous for the subtlety of its expression. The stars and stripes Page 17