HERITAGE: Sade Adu Gifts Us With The Perfect Valentine's Day Gem "No Ordinary Love" (1992)

HERITAGE: Sade Adu Gifts Us With The Perfect Valentine's Day Gem "No Ordinary Love" (1992)


February 14, 2023

One for the lovers today.

Sade's "No Ordinary Love" was one of the main highlights from Love Deluxe, the fourth album she released with her band Pride. In many ways, this stunning performance marked the end of an era. Later this same year, Sade and the band would go on an extended hiatus until the end of the decade.

Though the band then reformed in 1999 for the Lovers Rock album, "No Ordinary Love" and the Love Deluxe album were also the last time we'd hear Sade's definitive, jazz-inflected soul soul sound, at least until her more recent material—which, again, only came to us after yet another extended hiatus.

At the time, Love Deluxe drew mixed reactions from critics, despite almost universal commercial success across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. "No Ordinary Love", however, was always held up as an instant classic by critics and fans alike, celebrated for the return to Sade's smoky vocals and the track's slow-burning arrangement, and is no held up as one of her finest works of all time.

It also came with a pretty stunning video that cast Sade as a love-lorn mermaid and bride, but its this subtle, room-silencing performance that shows the track at its best.




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