Sade Speaker and Booking Agent Information

It was the first time the four members of the band had gotten together since the Lovers Rock tour ended in 2001. Paul Spencer Denman, the bassist, relocated from Los Angeles, where he was the manager of his son's punk band, Orange.

Stuart Matthewman, a guitarist and saxophonist based in New York, took a break from his film soundtrack work, and Andrew Hale, a keyboardist based in London, stepped down from his A&R consultancy. Sade drew up the material for a new album in a series of weekly sessions at Real World, which they all agreed was their most ambitious to yet.

The musical layering and martial rhythms of the title track, Soldier Of Love, in particular, seemed unlike anything else they'd done before. “At the beginning, the major concern for all of us was, did we really want to do this, and could we still get along as friends?” says Andrew Hale. The response came back quickly as a resounding yes.

The album was primarily recorded at Real World in the summer of 2009. The music's vibe had shifted away from Lovers Rock's traditional country soul stylings and had taken on a more diverse character. With Matthewman playing gentle sax on In Another Time and the voice on Long Hard Road hymning, the band sounded like the original Sade at moments.

Sade, on the other hand, was a force to be reckoned with songs like the joyfully eccentric reggae chant Babyfather and the theatrically orchestrated album opener The Moon and the Sky.