Track Listing

1. Your Love Is King
2. Hang On To Your Love
3. Smooth Operator
4. Jezebel
5. Sweetest Taboo
6. Is It A Crime
7. Never As Good As The First Time
8. Love Is Stronger Than Pride
9. Paradise
10. Nothing Can Come Between Us
11. No Ordinary Love
12. Like A Taboo
13. Kiss Of Life
14. Please Send Me Someone To Love
15. Cherish The Day
16. Pearls

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1692 in Music
• Released on: 2000-11-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
With her exotic beauty and steamy voice, Sade couldn't help but be a star. Taking the more sensuous elements of island beats, smooth jazz, and R&B, Sade scored major hits with the continental feel of "Smooth Operator" and the sultry stylisation of "Your Love Is King". Her voice was often criticised for being thin, yet she made it work to her advantage with songs like the haunting "Jezebel", on which her delivery added the vulnerability necessary to the song. Sade sounded best when she stuck to the lower register, and there is nothing thin about her dynamic handling of her torch song "Is It a Crime". "The Sweetest Taboo" was one of her last great moments before years of mediocrity, chronicled here by the lifeless "Stronger Than Pride" and the limp "Nothing Can Come Between Us". "No Ordinary Love" was a return to form with the smoky richness back in her vocals and the urban/island feel of her first release. Best of Sade goes right up to her hit "Pearls," which, remixed, became a dance-floor hit. The nicest surprise here is "Please Send Me Someone to Love," with Sade proving that although her range may be limited vocally, she doesn't suffer the same fate artistically. --Steve Gdula

CD Description
Nigerian vocalist Sade Adu has carved out a cosmpolitan niche for herself over the past decade, gathering together elements of cool jazz, samba, reggae, funk and pop all under thepastoral umbrella of her suede-and-velvet voice. A pop stylist with a musical universe all her own, Sade has endured and matured over the past decade, seemingly unaffected by changes in taste and fashion--a movement unto herself.
As hermost recent single (Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone To Love" from the PHILADELPHIA soundtrack) illustrates, Sade's coy caressing voice speaks more of commitment and trust, of relationships in flux ("Nothing Can Come Between Us") than of the heat of the moment: from the the coy duplicity of"Smooth Operator" to the positive reinforcement of "The Sweetest Taboo" and the sweet ambiguities of "Love Is Stronger Than Pride".
Outside of Sade's mentholated vocals, it is the serene, understated quality of her arrangements that lend THE BEST OF SADE its classic touch of elegance. Delicate washes of percussion and acoustic guitar, the coiled intensity of Stewart Matthewman's tenor saxophone counterpoint, Andrew Hale's suave, elusive keyboard colourations, and Paul S. Denman's discretely dancing bass provide a maximum of smoke,but precious little fire. The simmering aftermath of Sade'smusic is as deceptively powerful as a mixed drink: smooth and sweet going down, but with a surprisingly potent kick.

Customer Reviews

Exotic Pleasure
This truly is the best of the wonderful Nigerian songstress. Once you have all the Sade out there (pre-Lovers Rock) so that you can listen to the wonderful non singles like 'Bullet Proof Soul', 'Couldn't Love You More', 'Maureen', 'Tar Baby' and others, this is the one to own. It's the one you put on when you just want to listen to Sade!

There is an amazingly smooth flow to this marvelously put together effort. You never want to skip around because the song before the one you want to hear is great to. It's like that. This is one of the best, 'Best Of' CD's out there. Every Sade fan has this one and you'll want to pick it up also. I have two. One is for my car, and the other is for my home. It's that great.

Whether you're a die hard Sade fan or just a casual listener, once you listen to this you will find yourself in the former category. That's what Sade does to you. The exotic blend of the band's rhythms and the smooth stylings of Sade Adu come together to form a unique musical experience like no other. There is no one like her so 'The Best of Sade' is the best, period.

Pure Class
If ever i was asked to live on a desert island and i could take 1 album, then this would be it. I have played it to death over the years and i still find it new, still find new favourite parts.

Its simply an album of fantastic love songs, sung with a level of passion that you simply do not hear in other artists.

It is the ultimate, play at night, play in the car on the way home, wind down, hold your girl in your arms album.

Absolutely the best.

Just like Sade - Beautiful !`
Every romantic should have a Sade CD in their collection, and this is a well compiled CD featuring one of the most vocally seductive, and sultry artists around. Some editorial criticism i have noticed about Sade Adu is that her work all sounds the same, I would repudiate this criticism and argue that Sade is wonderfully diverse and unique, one of the true pioneers of R&B, this Gal has more strings in her bow than a guitar orchestra !

The best tracks in my opinion must be the moody, bluesy 'No Ordinary Love' drowned in sorrow, its lyrics are evocatively accurate about falling in love, 'Pearls' is a poignant track about starvation in Ethiopia Pearls being the metaphor for seeds a mother is collecting to grow food for her starving child, a very perceptive piece, musically so beautiful ending in Sade screaming Halleluya because shes so lucky (you gotta hear it), Cherish the day is cool, so is the satirical 'Smooth Operator' and Your love is king, another good ballad is 'Love is Stronger than pride'. I heard her new album 'Lovers Rock' and read shes aged 41, but she still looks and sounds better than ever.
Anyone with a pulse would love this
Anyone without one, it will awake you !