Promise (Sade album)

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Promise
Sade - Promise.png
Studio album by Sade
Released 4 November 1985
Recorded February–August 1985
Studio
Power Plant (London)
Miraval (Le Val, France)
Genre
Jazzpopsoul[1]
Length 54:10
Label Epic
Producer
Robin MillarMike PelaBen RoganSade
Sade chronology
Diamond Life
(1984) Promise
(1985) Stronger Than Pride
(1988)

Singles from Promise

"The Sweetest Taboo"
Released: November 1985
"Never as Good as the First Time"
Released: March 1986
"Is It a Crime?"
Released: June 1986
Promise is the second studio album by English band Sade, released in the United
Kingdom on 4 November 1985 by Epic Records and in the United States on 15 November
1985 by Portrait Records. Recording for the album began in February and lasted
until August 1985. The band co-produced the album with the same team of producers
they worked with on their debut album, Diamond Life, including Robin Millar, Mike
Pela and Ben Rogan. The album's title comes from a letter from Sade Adu's father
where he refers to the "promise of hope" to recover from cancer.

The album was a commercial success, peaking at number one on both the UK Albums
Chart and the US Billboard 200, becoming the band's first album to top both charts.
It also reached number one in Finland, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and the top
five in numerous countries, including Canada, Germany and New Zealand. The album
spawned three singles, including "The Sweetest Taboo", which became a success
worldwide.

Contents
1 Background
2 Recording
3 Release and promotion
4 Critical reception
5 Commercial performance
6 Track listing
6.1 Notes
7 Personnel
7.1 Sade
7.2 Additional musicians
7.3 Technical
7.4 Artwork
8 Charts
8.1 Weekly charts
8.2 Year-end charts
9 Certifications and sales
10 Release history
11 See also
12 References
12.1 Bibliography
Background
After studying fashion design, and later modeling briefly, Adu sang backup with
British band Pride. During this time she formed a writing partnership with Pride's
guitarist and saxophonist, Stuart Matthewman; together, backed by Pride's rhythm
section, they began doing their own sets at Pride gigs.[2] In 1983, Adu and
Matthewman split from Pride along with keyboardist Andrew Hale, bassist Paul
Denman, and drummer Paul Cooke and formed Sade; later that year they got a record
deal.[2] Afterwards, Sade released their debut album, Diamond Life, in 1984, which
became a success in the United Kingdom and later became a success in the United
States following the release of its single "Smooth Operator".[2] Diamond Life has
sold over six million copies worldwide, becoming one of the top-selling debut album
of the 1980s and the best-selling debut ever by a British female vocalist.[2]

Recording
Between February and August 1985, Sade enlisted the same team of producers they
worked with on Diamond Life. The band co-produced Promise with Robin Millar, Mike
Pela, and Ben Rogan, the latter of which played a less central role in the
production.[3] Some of the album's sessions took place during a two-week sojourn in
Provence, utilising an SSL E-series console housed at the barn-shaped, concrete-
built Studio Miraval. However, the majority of the album was recorded at Power
Plant Studios in London, where the project commenced in February 1985 and concluded
seven months later, with the mix being done in the Gallery (Studio Three) located
on the top floor, with its 44-channel Harrison MR3.[3] Studio One is where the
production team initially listened to several of the songs in demo form, although
Pela was at the Royal Albert Hall when he first heard one of the new tracks.[3]
Like their debut album, Promise was recorded live, though it featured the use of
technology, sampling drums by way of an AMS with a lock-in feature.[3]

The album's lead single was created at Power Plant's Studio One, where a 30 × 25 ×
18-foot live area was complemented by a 36-channel Harrison Series 24 console, UREI
813B main monitors and a 24-track Studer A820 recorder running Ampex tape at 30ips.
[3] Pela explained the process saying, "We had UREI monitors in all of the rooms so
that there was some continuity, and we also had Acoustic Research AR18Ss, which we
discovered at that studio and which I've still got a pair of. They were like hi-fi
speakers, they only cost about 80 quid, and once we'd started using them the
company stopped making them. They were really nice and natural-sounding, not
designed to carry super-low heavy frequencies, but absolutely fine."[3]

Release and promotion

The album spawned three singles—"Is It a Crime?", "Never as Good as the First Time"
and "The Sweetest Taboo", the latter of which was released as the album's lead
single and spent six months on the US Billboard Hot 100.[4] "The Sweetest Taboo"
peaked at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100, number one on the US Adult
Contemporary chart and number three on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.[5] The second
single "Never as Good as the First Time" was released in 1986, reaching number six
on the Adult Contemporary chart, number 18 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles
Sales chart, number eight on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number 20 on the
US Billboard Hot 100.[5] Sade was so popular that some radio stations reinstated
the 1970s practice of playing album tracks, adding "Is It a Crime?" and "Tar Baby"
to their playlists.[4] Following radio play, "Is It a Crime?" peaked at number 55
on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[5]
Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic [6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music [7]
Pitchfork 9.0/10[1]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide [8]
The Village Voice B[9]
In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Anthony DeCurtis felt that "the careful
elegance of the production and instrumental settings seems little more than a
strategy to conceal the limitations of Sade's vocal range and skills as a song
stylist".[10] The Village Voice's Robert Christgau commented, "Even when it's this
sumptuous, there's a problem with aural wallpaper—once you start paying attention
to it, it's not wallpaper anymore, it's pictures on the wall. And while as a
wallpaper these pictures may be something, they can't compete with the ones you've
hung up special."[9]

Ron Wynn of AllMusic was more positive in his retrospective review, stating that
the album was superior to the band's debut and describing Sade as the
"personification of cool, laid-back singing", despite "seldom extending or
embellishing lyrics, registering emotion, or projecting her voice."[6] In a
retrospective review for Pitchfork, Naima Cochrane called Promise "lush and
unhurried" and "the ideal second album, firmly establishing the Sade template
without retreading the same material of the band's debut." Cochrane felt that "You
can wrap yourself up in the music and Adu's soft-touch tone, recall or lament life
and love through the lyrics, or fully immerse yourself with both."[1]

Commercial performance