(Sony)
After eight years away from the studio, the ice cool queen of rhythm & blues, Sade, slinks out of semi-retirement with the slow-burning Lovers Rock.
Her fifth studio release, Lovers Rock, is another soulful, doleful reflection on life, love and human frailty. Predictably, this ain't no party album. With tracks like King Of Sorrow, Somebody Already Broke My Heart and It's Only Love That Gets You Through, this CD should come with a box of tissues.
Lovers Rock is, thankfully, saved from becoming complete musical Prozac by the superb opening track By Your Side, and some political lyrics ('He didn't know what it was to be black, till they gave him his change, but didn't want to touch his hand', from Immigrant).
Sade's Baileys-and-ice vocal delivery will take anyone old enough straight back to the mid-1980s Smooth Operator era. Lovers Rock is brought up to date with trip-hop and dub rhythms and even a nod to the Buena Vista Social Club.
But there's nothing ground-breaking here. It is stylish, smooth, easy on the ears but a little too oh-woe-is-me for its own good. Then again, there's nothing wrong with a good weep. Pass the tissues.