There has never been a singer quite like Sade Adu. Although she is of Nigerian origin, and her voice is clearly that of a woman of color, she is equally influenced by her English upbringing; the resulting combination of African heat and British coolness, particularly when combined with her band's elegant mixture of both American and European jazz idioms, is as original today as when it first appeared. Superficially cool and seemingly detached, everything about the band simmers with an underlying passion.

While Adu and her band (collectively known as Sade) have done many memorable recordings since they debuted, DIAMOND LIFE remains their single finest recording: it is pure liquid elegance every step of the way. Opening with "Smooth Operator," which makes particularly good use of Stuart Matthewman on sax, the entire collection flows effortlessly from cut to cut--some dark, some slightly dissonate, some slightly upbeat, and every one of them memorable in the most haunting way imaginable.

Like "Smooth Operator," both "Your Love Is King" and "Hang on to Your Love" actually broke into the charts as singles--a truly amazing feat for a jazz-oriented club band in the ultra-synthetic 1980s. But in truth, be it "Cherry Pie," "When Am I Gonna Make A Living," or "Sally," there isn't a bad cut on the entire CD. Everything shimmers with a sultry yet subtle beauty, pulling you into an atmosphere in which you seem to feel the pulse of a midnight lounge, the atmosphere of the club scene fromw which Sade emerged.

As a band, Sade is sexy, cool, smart, delicately shaded, and brilliantly shaped, and the aptly titled DIAMOND LIFE is perhaps one of the best debut recordings made over the past fifty years. Mix yourself a drink, turn the lights down low, drop it on the stereo, and dream of smoke, the clink of cocktail glasses, and the murmur of voices gone suddenly silent when the band begins to play. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Thank goodness for music fans that Sade debuted at a time when the music business was truly focused on the music side. I shudder to think about what could've happened if this uniquely original songstress & her dynamic band had debuted in 2006 instead of 1985 - would she be well received or become a one hit wonder?

Overall, this is a strong debut with just a couple of songs that bordered on the filler side for me & since I usually skip them, I couldn't give the disc the full 5 stars. I can't thank Sade enough for opening me up to different styles of singers & music.

My favorite tracks: SMOOTH OPERATOR - midtempo, jazzy song with a story to tell (the accompanying video was also excellent in its storytelling); HANG ON TO YOUR LOVE - the song that introduced Sade to the US, it created a sense of intrigue in me regarding what more this group had to offer, great lead off single; WHEN AM I GOING TO MAKE A LIVING - catchy, love the chorus; CHERRY PIE - love the music moreso than the lyrics; SALLY - very thematic song, precursor of what was to come from Sade, beautiful lyrics & moody music; WHY CAN'T WE LIVE TOGETHER - same as the aformentioned, Sally; YOUR LOVE IS KING - very smooth, jazzy track.

Even today, I'd highly recommend this disc - since the music production is so excellent & Sade's vocals are so unique the music sounds as fresh as if the disc had been released this year as opposed to 20 years ago!

I always hesitate to write music reviews because, frankly, I don't think I'm that good at them. I make exceptions when the album in question has either moved me deeply or has been an important part of my life for years. Diamond Life meets both criteria. It's hard for me to explain how this album has moved me, and nearly impossible to articulate the way it has been a part of my life for years. But I'll try.

Diamond Life takes its title from the first two words of the opening song, Smooth Operator. "Diamond life, lover boy. He moves in space with minimum waste and maximum joy." This sultry tale of the life of an international play boy has become a standard on adult contemporary stations, and to date remains Sade's biggest hit. The accompanying music video, available on the compilation titled "Sade - Life Promise Pride Love," casts Sade in the role she was born to play: sexy, exotic nightclub singer, with the most heavily made-up lips to ever grace the small screen. (Thick lipstick was Sade's trademark during the early 1980s.) To listen to Smooth Operator, my mind floods with beautiful images of paradise, of the Bahamas, Hawaii, white sandy beaches, warm sun, tropical breeze through the palm trees, and, of course, the fantasy of being in such places with Sade Adu herself, the most beautiful and elegant woman I've ever seen.

LA, New York, Chicago, Key Largo, and Europe, are all evoked in various songs in Diamond Life. And the song Why Can't We Live Together, with the lyrics, "No matter, no matter what color, you are still my brother," has always made me think of South Africa under Apartheid (which it still was when Diamond Life was released). Sade is an international phenomenon. Her very being, a Nigerian-born woman raised in England, is international. I've always loved an eclectic, international vibe. Fittingly, it was while in New York, summer of 1994, that I first fell in love with Sade. I was studying at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. In a class of over 40 students, about 25 countries were represented. "The UN would be envious," our teacher, Armgard von Bardeleben, said.

In Frankie's First Affair, Sade gives counsel to a young man experiencing the pains of his first affair. She uses beautiful, organic symbolic references, such as, "Didn't I tell you the lion would come in for the kill?" Since it is his first affair, I envision he is a young man, and since Sade is giving him counsel, I envision he is younger than Sade. What a unique, and idiosyncratically "Sade," topic for a song. In the song Sally, Sade champions an otherwise unrecognized woman who has opened her home to troubled young men. "Tommy had a wife and family, but the needle came between the love and the hard times. Thank God for Sally, she was there through the misery." I love the emotional intimacy and mentoring in these songs. Most popular music is full of praise for the rich and famous. Sade, on the other hand, often sings about regular everyday people, the unheard of and overlooked people who find strength and meaning in unglamorous and often tragic situations. (One is reminded of the song "Pearls" on Sade's beautiful fourth album "Love Deluxe.") Perhaps such nuanced intimacy was inevitable, as I've heard that originally Sade's only ambition was to make music her friends would like. She didn't seem to enter the music scene with dreams of stardom.

Anais Nin wrote that woman is a mermaid with her tail dipped in man's subconscious mind. Sade, who would later portray a mermaid in the music video for the song "No Ordinary Love," first dipped her tail into my subconscious mind with Diamond Life.

First off, I need to point out that when Epic decided to release remastered versions of all her albums, they released the cassette with an additional track, Love Affair With Life, but left it off the CD. How smart is that? Buy the cassette just for that track alone - it's a gorgeous, melancholy torch song which she sings with sparse accompaniment (piano, lonely sax). It's Sade at her smoky, soulful best.

Now to the rest of the album. What can I say that hasn't been said about it already? For a debut, it's a stunner (and, if I'm not wrong, it's still the best selling debut by a British female artist). She's made better records since (including Love Deluxe and the awesome Lovers Rock), but Diamond Life is still a very accomplished and sophisticated record. Of course, Smooth Operator is here, but the best track is the soul gem Your Love Is King. It's an erotic song, but its words are thoughtful and meditative, reflecting the post-coital contentment of a woman in love. Sally is another knockout track, brilliant in its lyrical depth and jazzy delivery. (Sade is a great lyricist, something she's not credited often for.) Written as a tribute to the Salvation Army, it tells the story of three men rescued off the streets by "Sally," and shows Sade's skill at writing songs with vivid character development.

Diamond Life is great start to a career that seems to grow from strength to strength. (Pity it's a none too prolific career, but I suppose she emphasizes quality over quantity.) For an 80s album, it still sounds sumptuous and relevant (compared to, say, a Thompson Twins or Culture Club album, which you can only listen to with embarassment). I guess timeless is the word for it.

This CD by Sade is probably one of the best production of all time. They really spent quality time in the studio putting this recording together. Urban radio, and a new concept called smooth jazz radio, placed the songs on this cd in heavy rotation, back in 1984. Pop music was slow to pick up Sade, but when they came aboard, they raise the groups music to another level. Oh yes, Sade is a group, not just a singer.