Official video for Sade's "Soldier of Love" makes debut

Singer Sade in a quiet moment off-stage. (AP photo of British/Nigerian singer Sade)

Almost a month after the December 22, 2009, release of the Soldier of Love single from the group Sade’s forthcoming CD, the official video for the song made its debut January 11, 2010, on Amazon. The album is currently scheduled for worldwide release February 9, 2010.

The single carries the same name as the album. Prior to yesterday’s debut of the official video, a variety of fan versions had already become YouTube favorites with almost one million views. The album is currently number 14,744 in music on Amazon.

Album Number 6

Soldier of Love is Sade’s sixth studio album since the group introduced itself to the world with Diamond Life in 1984. It is their first since the Grammy Award-winning set, Lover’s Rock, in 2000. The band takes its name (pronounced Shar-day) from that of the lead singer, Sade Adu (who was born Helen Folasade Adu).

Responding to questions of why it took a decade for for the group to produce a new CD, the singer issued this statement:

“I only make records when I feel I have something to say. I'm not interested in releasing music just for the sake of selling something.”

She added: “You can only grow as an artist as long as you allow yourself the time to grow as a person… I couldn't have made Soldier of Love any time before now, and though it's been a long wait for the fans – and I am sorry about that - I'm incredibly proud of it.”

The daughter of a Nigerian futher and English mother, Sade’s strikingly classic beauty, combined with an image-friendly flare for singular cutting edge fashion, has won her group a world-wide audience over the past two and a half decades. Both visually and sonically, the band has successfully fused the creative aesthetics of old school jazz and blues with new school trends in acid- and nujazz placing them among the pioneers of the now immensely popular genre known as smooth jazz.

Their efforts have allowed them to sell some 50 million records across the globe. As essential as Sade’s celebrated voice to the group’s success has been the musical finesse of its core band members: guiatarist and saxophonist Stuart Matthewman, keyboardist Andrew Hale, and bass-man Paul S. Denman.

The Song and Video Interpreted

If the song upon its release implied that Sade was still very much in top form, the video confirms it. Socially and politically conscious lyrics, enriched by Sade’s enthralling smoke and velvet voice, have been a trademark of the group since its beginning. The video alternates between images of the singer in glittering battle garb and glamorous rodeo gear, soldiers performing drills in a desert as bombs explode around them, and in true Sade surrealistic sybolic fashion, a white horse rearing up beside the crashing waves of an ocean.

Singer Sade in warrior for love mode. (new MP3 cover)

The lyrics tell the story behind the images and include the following:

"I've lost the use of my heart
But I'm still alive
Still looking for the life
The endless pool on the other side
It's a wild wild west
I'm doing my best
I'm at the borderline of my faith,
I'm at the hinterland of my devotion
In the frontline of this battle of mine
But I'm still alive
I'm a soldier of love.”
––Sade Adu

Those lines taken by themselves may be interpreted as indicating someone struggling to survive the devastation of a painful failed love affair. But they may also be interpreted another way when paying attention the layers of marching rhythms and military beats that drive the song throughout.

In fact, given the history–defining role that terrorism and war have takekn on since Sade’s last release, and the not-so-subtle “wild wild west” images in the video, it’s probably safe to say that Soldier of Love is on its way to becoming a classic protest song in the mode of Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit or Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. How much of the new album will reflect such concerns is something fans will not know until its release next month.