Inside The Credits 054 (Birthday Edition): Sade
Dissecting The Production of Sade’s Love Deluxe: My Favorite Album From The Year I Was Born
Firstly, in case you didn’t know, Sade is a band. The singer is the one and only Sade Adu, Paul Denman is on bass, Martin Ditcham is on drums, Stuart Matthewman is on guitar and sax, Andrew Hale is on keys, and Mike Pela engineers and co-produces. Their masterpiece to my ears is Love Deluxe, my favorite album released during the same year I came into this world. As this Inside The Credits post is dropping on my birthday, it felt only right to dissect the instrumental work of the band on this album and to explain, via a track to track breakdown, why I believe it is the group’s opus.
Track 1: “No Ordinary Love”
When I think of “No Ordinary Love” the first word I think of is pulse. Not only does the song feel like a heartbeat thumping in sonic form, but the instrumental feels like it’s quite literally pulsating and breathing. What helps accomplish this is the cleanest percussion pocket you’ll hear from Ditcham, but what solidifies it is Denman’s emotional bass against Sade’s voice. It feels like blood pumping into an artery. The final necessary element is the building guitar moments from Matthewman in the lead up to the hook. They allow for the healing chorus to release like a flock of birds during migration.
Track 2: “Feel No Pain”
After the liberation of “No Ordinary Love” the following track necessarily needed precise focus and tension. The percussion on “Feel No Pain” by Ditcham is a masterclass in restraint, yet the most essential element is the cut off jazz piano elements by Hale. He counters Sade’s vocal delivery with chord hits that feel like clutching your chest in hurt.
Track 3: “I Couldn’t Love You More”
With track three, the band opens back up with the unfurling flow, yet with some progression. While “No Ordinary Love” is expansive and outwardly expressive, “I Couldn’t Love You More” feels much more intimate. The track still floats into the ethereal ether via synthy keys from Hale, but the arrangement overall remains contained by the sparse finessed percussion by Ditcham. That is, up until that Stuart Matthewman sax lifts it momentarily into the stratosphere with sequences that feel like falling into silk sheets.
Track 4: “Like A Tattoo”
My favorite song on Love Deluxe arrives at track four, incorporating a welcome change of Spanish guitar. Sade instills a welcome rasp in her voice to play off the strings expertly played by Matthewman. But the song explodes into euphoric wonder when the keys and synths by Hale create a rain cloud spewing electric mist. It’s as simple a soundscape as exists on the album, but still it remains the most piercingly beautiful.
Track 5: “Kiss Of Life”
This song is maybe the least impressive instrumentally on the album and the appeal lies way more in Sade’s melodies. It acts as a sleek transition from “Like A Tattoo” to the next climactic number, necessarily so.
Track 6: “Cherish The Day”
As much as “Like A Tattoo” is my personal favorite, the production on this song is the true standout. The reason being the mysterious elements of the composition that make it whole. I’m not even sure what that first noise is at all that enters the soundscape atop the base level drum kick and atmospheric synths. It sounds like a weaving and winding comet in the night sky. There’s also an essential added noise, that sounds like a drum pad but acts as a bass, that emerges on the second breakdown with the comet sound. There’s also a random flute sound, that could also be a synth, which comes in at about two and a half minutes. I wish I knew who procured these sounds, but they don’t necessarily fall into any one credited category. This is one of those times in Inside The Credits where the credits do not give all the answers, or even answers I could infer. Somebody get me in touch with the band.
Track 7: “Pearls”
This synthy arrangement by Hale mirrors a string quartet and brings Sade into the world of classical pop r&b fusion. There are sounds as the song progresses that do feel like real strings that do make me wonder if they brought someone in. Again, I gotta speak to the band.
Track 8: “Bulletproof Soul”
The creep in of this song instrumentally is what makes it so cool. Piano from Hale and sax from Matthewman outline the Sade’s lyrics “hit me like a slow bullet, took me some time to realize it” with expert precision. It's a great exercise in how an instrumental can accompany a lyrical through-line to make it hit hard. All the sounds together help express the thesis— love that isn’t “at first sight,” but rather something that grows on you, can be way more potent.
Track 9: “Mermaid”
How do you make something sound underwater? A question it feels like many producers have asked and executed in a plethora of different ways. My personal two favorites are the way Galimatias did it for Alina Baraz and how the band did it here. While Galimatias made it feel like a sort of electric wonderland, the band here expresses the ocean as a place of pure serenity. The way Matthewman makes a guitar sound feel aquatic is masterful, but the percussion by Ditcham is the star. The way he combines sparse marine sounds together to form the rhythm makes this closing instrumental only track feel essential, when it had every possibility of feeling superfluous.
Instead of a Playlist this time, just listen to Love Deluxe wherever you’d like
Also, as it is my birthday, I’d like to express how much it would mean to me to receive your financial support for this publication in any way you deem fit. Of course, the best way is by subscribing with a payment monthly or for the full year (below). However, if a one time donation is more your speed, feel free to do so here. Much love.