Track Listing

1. Smooth Operator
2. Your Love Is King
3. Hang On To Your Love
4. When Am I Gonna Make A Living
5. Frankie's First Affair
6. Cherry Pie
7. Sally
8. I Will Be Your Friend
9. Why Can't We Live Together

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5627 in Music
• Released on: 2000-11-13
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
It could have been that Sade (collectively, the vocalist Sade Adu and her band) would have remained the darlings solely of the British underground rare-groove scene, but the sound of Diamond Life proved irresistible to the mainstream, and the rest is history. Caught at the beginning of her career in 1985, Sade's cool vocals and exotic looks grabbed everyone's attention. But equally as important to Diamond Life's success was the velvet muscle of the band's accompaniment, a sinewy after-hours groove, laden with minimalist funk. Eight of the nine tracks are self-penned. Straddling R&B and pop, this disc lays out the hooks and sultry allure that became Sade's soulful standard--intelligent and sexy at the same time.--Derek Rath

CD Description
Sade crept up on the music market when they were least expecting it. The surprise hit 'Your Love Is King' was a very mature record for the singles market and one that opened the door to smooth soul-based pop. This album proved that she wasno fluke and it became one of the most acclaimed debuts of all time. Sade rode out the publicity and coped with everything; for once the music did the talking. 'Smooth Operator' put her back in the pop charts but it was the overall class and confidence of the whole album that makes it so darn good.Her reading of Timmy Thomas's 'Why Can't We Live Together' is a highlight.

Customer Reviews

Pure Liquid Elegance
There has never been a singer quite like Sade Adu. Although she is of Nigerian origin, and her voice is clearly that of a woman of color, she is equally influenced by her English upbringing; the resulting combination of African heat and British coolness, particularly when combined with her band's elegant mixture of American and European jazz idioms and African rythmns, is as original today as when it first appeared. Superficially cool and seemingly detached, everything about the band simmers with an underlying passion.

While Adu and her band have done many memorable recordings since they debuted, DIAMOND LIFE remains their single finest recording: it is pure liquid elegance every step of the way. Opening with "Smooth Operator," which makes particularly good use of Stuart Matthewman on sax, the entire collection flows effortlessly from cut to cut--some dark, some slightly dissonate, some slightly upbeat, and every one of them memorable in the most haunting way imaginable.

Like "Smooth Operator," both "Your Love Is King" and "Hang on to Your Love" actually broke into the charts as singles--a truly amazing feat for a jazz-oriented club band in the ultra-synthetic 1980s. But in truth, be it "Cherry Pie," "When Am I Gonna Make A Living," or "Sally," there isn't a bad cut on the entire CD. Everything shimmers with a sultry yet subtle beauty, pulling you into an atmosphere in which you seem to feel the pulse of a midnight lounge, the atmosphere of the club scene fromw which Sade emerged.

As a band, Sade is sexy, cool, smart, delicately shaded, and brilliantly shaped, and the aptly titled DIAMOND LIFE is perhaps one of the best debut recordings made over the past fifty years. Mix yourself a drink, turn the lights down low, drop this on the stereo--and dream of smoke, the clink of cocktail glasses, and the murmur of voices gone suddenly silent when the band begins to play. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Not just for Eighties Dinner Parties
Sade suffered from the same lazy pigeon-holing that plagued Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" and countless other albums over the years. The cliche was that you put Dire on to demonstrate your new, shiny compact disc player, and you put Sade's "Diamond Life" on to show your dinner-party guests how sophisticated, yet contemporary you were.

Playing this remastered CD just over 20 years on from the album's first release, the quality of the band's playing and the soul in the vocals comes as quite a surprise. None of these tracks are bad. Some are exceptional. "Hang on to your love" ploughs a muscular groove that is marvellously tight. "Smooth Operator" either celebrates or lampoons the yuppie male of the eighties, concluding ultimately ambiguously. "Your love is King" is allegedly about something very intimate, but I couldn't possibly comment... judge for yourself! The other tracks never really let up in terms of sheer class.

The remaster is good in terms of quality, although the original CD certainly wasn't awful. The only minor complaint - and true of so many remastered CDs - why no extra B-side-type tracks, such as the excellent "Spirit" that I remember from the "Smooth Operator" single?

Sade's next album ("Promise") was resolutely uncommercial, and pushed the soulful vibe even further. Meanwhile, however, forget the smoothie dinner-party jibes, this has got more soul than a coachload of today's chart hopefuls.

An excellent soundtrack for a date
Being a child of the 80's I get a bit nostalgic everytime I hear music from that period. I listened to my sister's vinyl edition of this album and rushed out to get the cd. The first 3 tracks are absoloute gems and the songs Frankie's first affair, Cherry pie and Sally are also very good. The songs are similar in a way, mellow and sad in some way, but Sade's voice is so hypnotic that you don't realize that you've listened to the whole CD until it stops. The only song that's missing from this album is Sweetest Taboo. Smooth Operator and Your love is king are great! I highly recomend this album if you're looking for something to set the mood for a hot date!