Love Deluxe

Love Deluxe is the fourth studio album by English band Sade, released by Epic Records in the United Kingdom on 26 October 1992 and in the United States on 3 November 1992.

Critical reception
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau felt that half of Love Deluxe cannot qualify with Sade's most memorable songs and particularly panned the lyric about a Somali woman who "hurts like brand-new shoes" in the song "Pearls". Los Angeles Times journalist Dennis Hunt said that while some songs "make good romantic background music", others resemble lesser imitations of "Enya's ultra-soothing mood music." Amy Linden of Entertainment Weekly stated that the album "surges with emotion, but the mostly lush ambient music on Love Deluxe is low on the oomph meter." James T. Jones IV was more enthusiastic in USA Today, commenting that it "may frustrate those who want to hear something truly different" from Sade, but would satisfy fans with its "quasi-jazz moods, light Afro-Latin undercurrents and minimalist arrangements". Writing for NME, David Quantick found Love Deluxe not "much different" from Sade's previous work, yet still "a fine album" having "proper tunes and neat arrangements", and "the soul of subtlety." In Rolling Stone, Mark Coleman deemed Sade Adu an "exacting" lyricist and Love Deluxe an "artfully arranged and tastefully executed album" that "repays the time it takes to grow on you."

Retrospectively, AllMusic's Ron Wynn wrote that Love Deluxe "marked a return to the detached cool jazz backing and even icier vocals that made her debut album a sensation" with an "urbane" sound. In the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide, Roni Sarig noted that it introduced "subtle divergences" to Sade's standard style, with "No Ordinary Love" in particular pointing to the band's later shift "toward the sleeker, more digital sound of modern British pop." Ivy Nelson highlighted the "monolithic" nature and "blissful abstraction" of the album's sound, as well as its "timeless expressions of desire and heartache", in a 2017 review for Pitchfork, who in 2022 listed it as the 52nd best album of the 1990s. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Love Deluxe 247th on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Commercial performance
Love Deluxe peaked at number 10 on the UK Albums Chart, and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 1 June 1993. In the United States, the album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, and as of May 2003, it had sold 3.4 million copies. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it four-times platinum on 9 November 1994, denoting shipments in excess of four million copies. The album was also commercially successful elsewhere, reaching number one in France and the top 10 in Belgium, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. By April 1993, the album had sold three million copies worldwide, including 220,000 copies in Italy.

Aftermath
Following the release of Love Deluxe, the band had a seven-year hiatus, during which Sade Adu came under media scrutiny with rumours of depression and addiction and later gave birth to her first child. During this time, the other members of the band, Stuart Matthewman, Paul Denman, and Andrew Hale, went on to other projects, including Sweetback, which released a self-titled album in 1996. Matthewman also played a major role in the development of Maxwell's career, providing instrumentation and production work for the R&B singer's first two albums.

Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Love Deluxe.

Sade

 * Paul S. Denman – bass
 * Sade Adu – vocals
 * Andrew Hale – keyboards
 * Stuart Matthewman – guitars, saxophone

Additional musicians

 * Leroy Osbourne – vocals
 * Martin Ditcham – drums (track 5); percussion (tracks 1, 5)
 * Nick Ingman – string arrangements (tracks 5, 7)
 * Gavyn Wright – orchestra leader
 * Tony Pleeth – solo cello (track 7)

Technical

 * Sade – production, arrangements
 * Mike Pela – co-production, engineering
 * Chris Lord-Alge – engineering, mixing (track 9)
 * Sandro Franchin – engineering assistance
 * Adrian Moore – engineering assistance
 * Marc Williams – engineering assistance
 * Stephen Marcussen – mastering

Artwork

 * Albert Watson – photography
 * Peter Brawne – design
 * Quest Typesetting – production