Sade -- Love Deluxe

7/10

This is going to get awkward: it's time to talk about The Nicsperiment's...awakening. Like...um...er...*shh*...cough...uh...(((of the sexual kind))).
One day in 1993, I was puttering around with the TV on in the background. Good old TV. Along came a commercial for an upcoming movie. A voice, sirenic, unbelievably sensual, sang through the tube. Sade. "No Ordinary Love."

My head whipped toward the television, completely out of my control. Five seconds earlier, girls had cooties. Now they were Demi Moore, and I no longer thought they had cooties. Now, suddenly, I liked them. I like them very much. The commercial advertised the 1993 drama "Indecent Proposal," in which Robert Redford's wealthy character offers Woody Harrelson's character and Woody's character's wife, played by Moore, a million dollars. All they have to do in return is let Robert Redford's character sleep with Moore's character. The conflicted couple eventually accept this...indecent proposal, Moore rolls around naked on a bed full of cash, and my attention was forever turned toward the opposite sex. I watched the movie about twenty years later, and it is pretty lousy (and even more morally queasy), but the best thing to come of it (as I'm sure some other Hollywood starlet would have drawn my attention had Demi Moore not...in fact, I saw The Rocketeer right about that time, and Jennifer Connelly in that film is the most attractive any person has looked, ever, except my wife all the time) is that I heard one of my favorite all-time songs for the first time. Sade's "No Ordinary Love" from her 1992 album, Love Deluxe, is one of the sexiest songs ever, riding a huge, thumping bassline, driving drums, guitar that goes from subtle to power-chording metal (though not anywhere near overpowering in the mix), that awesome early 90's atmospheric keyboard sound, and Sade's unbelievably sultry voice, with that rich tone unlike anyone else in modern music. I wish I could say the rest of Love Deluxe lives up to "No Ordinary Love," which, as the opening song, is a helluva front load, but it doesn't. There are plenty of other songs in the same vein, with "Cherish the Day" coming closest, but none pump the blood like "No Ordinary Love." Whoa, I was just trying to make a "vein" metaphor there, don't get dirty!
There are a couple of political songs here, too, mostly shedding light on world poverty, and they aren't bad, really none of these songs are bad, but they pale so dimly in the light of "No Ordinary Love," they nearly feel non-existent.
I'm probably underselling this album pretty severely. However, when an entire album has to live up to such a singular experience in my life, how is it supposed to succeed? How is anyone supposed to live up to early 90's Jennifer Connelly (except, of course, my wife, easily)?
Okay, cool, let's pretend like this whole review never happened.
As a distraction, here is one of my favorite covers of all time, doing both justice to the original, and creating an entirely new, equally worthwhile experience. Incredible.


1992 Epic
1. No Ordinary Love 7:20
2. Feel No Pain 5:08
3. I Couldn't Love You More 3:49
4. Like a Tattoo 3:38
5. Kiss of Life 5:50
6. Cherish the Day 5:34
7. Pearls 4:34
8. Bullet Proof Soul 5:26
9. Mermaid 4:23