Album Review

Released after a decade-long absence -- the longest gap in Sade's discography -- Soldier of Love topped the charts in several countries, effectively prolonging the group's career while introducing a new, darker sound. There's a fatalist depth of heartache conveyed throughout the set. On “Bring Me Home,” Sade Adu is content in resignation (“Send me to slaughter/Lay me on the railway line”), while on “The Moon and the Sky,” she projects a bruised and angered bewilderment (“You lay me down and left me for the lions”). The bleakness is tempered with themes of survival and recovery, and a song that is truly sweet (“Babyfather"). Relatable most to those who've experienced solitude created by romantic desertion, this is not your mother's Sade album. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi