Sade - Promise

Sade's second album took the cool, smoky sophistication of Diamond Life somewhere more intimate and more daring, and Promise remains one of the most elegant records of the 1980s.

It landed in 1985, little more than a year after the debut that made Sade Adu a global name, yet it refused to chase the same formula. The band and producer Robin Millar slowed everything down, recording mostly in London with a stint at Studio Miraval in Provence. The gamble paid off: Promise topped the album charts in both the UK and the US, the band's only album to reach number one at home.

Opener "Is It a Crime?" is a six-minute torch song where Adu's voice glides over a slow-burning band and late-night saxophone. "The Sweetest Taboo" is pure velvet, its gentle rhythm and warm bass making it one of the decade's most enduring slow dances. "Jezebel" paints a vivid portrait of a woman determined to rise above her beginnings, and "Never as Good as the First Time" adds a crisp, knowing groove.

Nothing here raises its voice, and that restraint is the magic trick.

On vinyl, the record's spacious production and low-lit atmosphere have plenty of room to unfold, exactly as a Sade album should, ideally after dark with the lights low.