Monday, February 22, 2010

Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!


Something like two years in the making and six years before that in the waiting. But Sade has never been fast at making music, unless you count the time between album one and two. Earlier this month, they finally released Soldier of Love.

While not a huge fan of their overall stuff, I did love their first disk and the rest of their stuff had enough good songs to make up an incredible second disk, if you collected all that good music.

My issue is that it starts to blend together too quickly. I suppose I like their first disk because it was so different at the time and now that they are on album six, there isn't tons new to explore.

Still, in this world of the auto-tuned artist, or Miley (it's Miley!) or worse, the unveiling that someone like Taylor Swift really cannot sing a single note in tune, it is great to hear a band rely on their talent and an extremely good vocalist who needs no embellishment other than a microphone.

Their lead-off "single", and title track, is one of the few places they do try new exploration, if you will. The rhythm section really changes it up from what they had done in the past and Sade Adu's vocals take on a new persona. Alas, it is mostly just for this song, though "Babyfather" somewhat breaks their traditional mold with some reggae influences.

After that, it is back to what they know - which doesn't suck. While normally I hate complacency and being too consistent in music, anything else for this band would be disconcerting and it probably wouldn't work.

I like it because of their talent in writing, playing and singing. I can't listen to this in repeated sessions, that's not how this music works with me. But in these days where you do not need talent to be an "artist", it is nice to know it still exists.

2 comments:

Larry Ohio said...

"...the unveiling that someone like Taylor Swift really cannot sing a single note in tune..." Sad but true. Is it just me or did all the radio stations abruptly stop playing her after that disastrous Grammy performance?

Dith said...

I thought Sade was a woman, not a whole band. D'oh!