Love Deluxe – Venice to London, No Ordinary Love

Venice to London, No Ordinary Love

On Love Deluxe, the first sound is Stuart Matthewman’s guitar scraping against a programmed pulse. Sade Adu does not come in at once. Released on Epic on 26 October 1992 in the UK (3 November in the US), the band’s fourth album was cut over roughly four months at Condulmer near Venice, Ridge Farm in Surrey, The Hit Factory in London and Image Recording in Los Angeles. Sade produced. Mike Pela co-produced and engineered. After the Stronger Than Pride tour, the quartet came back with fewer live drums and a denser, more digital room.

Adu explained the title in plain terms: love deluxe is one of the few luxuries you cannot buy. The nine tracks stay inside that idea. No Ordinary Love stretches past seven minutes on a slow metallic riff and Denman’s bass. Feel No Pain talks unemployment without raising the volume. Like a Tattoo came from a war veteran Adu met in a Manhattan bar. Kiss of Life and Cherish the Day keep the pulse soft and the voice close. Pearls brings Nick Ingman’s strings. Bullet Proof Soul leaves space for Matthewman’s saxophone. The closer Mermaid is mostly instrumental, a quiet close on the album.

Singles did the commercial work. No Ordinary Love led, then Feel No Pain, Kiss of Life and Cherish the Day. The album reached No. 10 in the UK and No. 3 on the Billboard 200, later going four-times platinum in the US. France put it at No. 1. Albert Watson shot the cover: Adu’s face half in shadow, lipstick and an earring, and no slogan. The 1993 Love Deluxe world tour followed; then the band went quiet for seven years while Adu stepped out of the press cycle and Matthewman, Denman and Hale worked on other projects, including Sweetback and early Maxwell sessions.