Sade

Aided by Sade's stunning beauty, the sophomore release Promise was as successful as its predecessor, and Sade scored a huge hit with "Sweetest Taboo." While some critics felt her success rested on a false sense of sophistication that masked emotionless singing, others felt the timbre of her voice was enough to brighten the most mediocre material.

Although her dusky alto croon is alluringly sensual, Sade is ultimately about control. On last
year's Diamond Life, she debuted as a smooth operator indeed, gliding over the surfaces of
pop accessibility and jazz sophistication with a coolness that implied she was holding back
at least as much as she was letting go. In its very title, Promise trades on this same tension,
but it's a year later and I was hoping for more in the way of delivery. As the sing... More >

Even when it's this sumptuous, there's a problem with aural wallpaper--once you start paying attention to it, it's not wallpaper anymore, it's pictures on the wall. And while as a wallpaper these pictures may be something, they can't compete with the ones you've hung up special. That's why I prefer my aural wallpaper either so richly patterned you can't see past the whole (Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians) or so intricately worked you can gaze at the details forever (Eno's Another Green World). In between I'll take Julie London. (Grade - B)