Sade -- Soldier of Love

6/10

I think 2009/2010 is one of my least favorite periods in music. Last year there was some controversy over comments The Dirty Projector's David Longstreth made about the current lame state of indie music, as opposed to 2009, when he was culturally relevant, his critical darling, Bitte Orca, receiving rave reviews. The thing is, Bitte Orca isn't just lame, it sucks. All of that music sucks. It sucked then, and it sucks now. Hipsters and many critics lost their minds over Animal Collective's 2009 release, Merriweather Post Pavillion. It was declared album of the year by many reviewers upon its release, and it was released in freaking January. "Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion is changing the way we think about music," many slathering reviewers cried, most under the age of understanding that people have been making music for a very, very long time. Merriweather Post Pavillion is garbage, garbage from a seaside town in the middle of summer, July 5th garbage that should have been picked up yesterday. It is awful, unlistenable crap in your ear, and I'd wager no one has actually listened to it since the week after it was released. If you like boring, barely written, barely performed, badly performed, whitest of the white in the most derogatory way I can possibly mean that, crappy tunes, the indie music off 2009 and 2010 is for you. The worst part is, some of the bands I actually like released their absolute worst albums in 2009 and 2010, as well. mewithoutYou's It's All Crazy... and The Mars Volta's Octahedron are embarrassments to those great bands' catalogues. Even always reliable bands, like Project 86, who have even recently released decent albums with essentially a zombie crew, put out lousy material. Sure, there are some legitimately great albums from the era, like Gorillaz' Plastic Beach, among many others, but my overall impression of those couple of years in music is that I hate most of it. My "top albums" lists from those two years are full of music I'll never listen to again. However, I am actually thankful for that era of music. Pre-2011 me had a desire to fit in critically, to be a part of whatever the cultural musical moment. Those two years completely destroyed that desire. After trying to like Animal Collective and The Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear and Vampire Weekend and Phoenix, then realizing with astonishment that I hated those bands' music, and that even on an objective level, a lot of it was awful, I decided to like what I like, regardless of popular or hipserati critical opinion. If I look at all of my "top albums" lists from 2011 onwards, I see compendiums of music I only listed because I loved. I could and do listen to that music currently, and I still love it.
Sade's 2010 release, Soldier of Love, doesn't play to any late 2009/2010 trends other than that it is a little boring, and a little too cleanly produced. It starts off with the beautiful and haunting "The Moon and the Sky," before diving into the militant groove of its title track. "Soldier of Love" is one of Sade's all time greats, bass and drums in lockstep, guitar getting real weird, and Sade laying down one of her thick trademark vocal lines. Like all of her best songs, it could go on forever, and that would be just fine.

Up next is the spectral, piano-led "Morning Bird," followed by the chill island smile of "Babyfather." And then things go into wedding band territory. Like, background music at a wedding. Like, boring, quiet, tension-free music. Sade sounds really content in her life and that is great, but it doesn't make for very exciting music. So if boring is a trend, Soldier of Love actually fits right in with its 2009/2010 brethren/sistren.
Bummer.
Of course, eras end. And with the rise in Youtube's ability to disperse new music, in any genre anyone might be interested in, there's no reason not to find something that isn't boring to you. Pitchfork's "Only we can find cool stuff, and then we'll trickle it down to you," attitude holds even less water than when music was more elusive. Everyone has access to what they want. It's the wave of the future. And the future doesn't have to suck! ...more on that later.

2010 Epic
1. The Moon and the Sky 4:28
2. Soldier of Love 5:59
3. Morning Bird 3:55
4. Babyfather 4:40
5. Long Hard Road 3:03
6. Be That Easy 3:41
7. Bring Me Home 4:09
8. In Another Time 5:06
9. Skin 4:13
10. The Safest Place 2:46