Love Deluxe by Sade

Love Deluxe, Sade's fourth studio album, slipped out on Epic in October 1992 in Britain and a month later in America, and it's the London band at their most seductive, cool and deep as a midnight swimming pool. This time they leaned on more modern recording and production techniques than on their first three albums, and the result is lush and slow-burning: Paul Denman's bass pulsing low, Andrew Hale's keyboards shimmering, Stuart Matthewman's guitar and sax drifting through the haze, and Sade Adu singing about the knots of love and loss in a voice that never has to raise itself.

"No Ordinary Love" is the smoldering centerpiece. The album went top ten in several countries, critics praised the playing, the sound and the songs' themes, and it has since turned up on lists of the '90s' best albums and of all time, Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums among them.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.