Description
SLEEVE: NM MEDIA: NM YEAR: 1985 ORIGIN: Japan EXTRAS: No obi, has insert
Promise, from 1985, is the ideal second album, firmly establishing the Sade template without retreading the same material of the band’s debut.
Promise is lush and unhurried, reclining somewhere between jazz, Brazilian pop, and soul. Multiple articles and reviews from the time of release leaned on the same descriptor for the singer, the band, and the music: “cool.” It’s mood music, at the purest definition: Stuart Matthewman’s sax, Andrew Hale’s keys, and Paul Spencer Denman’s masterful bass envelope listeners, transport them. The live recordings were a departure from the heavily programmed production of the era, and the sparse elegance that some found—and still find—too loungy is one of the primary factors in Sade’s sound and catalog aging beautifully.