SADE STRONGER THAN PRIDE Released: 3 May 1988 Label: Epic RecordsJasmine Adarkwa challenges you to dig out a classic album from the past, remember and revisit with new ears.Stronger Than Pride was an international success and a platinum selling UK album reaching number three in the UK Charts for Sade, her third in as many years.  Although nominated for both ‘Best R&B Album by a Female Artist’ and ‘Best Jazz Album’ at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1989, the album lost out to Anita Baker’s ‘Giving You The Best That I Got’.Sade’s signature single release from the album; Paradise gained international success and peaked at number 29 on The UK Chart. It harmoniously defined the whole album with its repetitive groove, unmistakable bass line and little did Sade know at the time, defined the band’s musical identity.Nothing Can Come between Us and Turn My Back On You are both also driven by cyclic rare-groove bass lines wholly complimented by Sade’s sensual, and smokey vocal.Love Is Stronger Than Pride is the leading single from the album. It’s ethereal, dreamy and lyrically, it describes the thin line between ego, love and hate; arguably one of the most distinctively produced songs on the album. Haunt Me was the last single to be released from the album and it is beautifully simple. The acoustics create a lullaby feeling and the lyrics tell a story of possible infatuation between two lovers.Stronger Than Pride is beautifully created from to start to finish. The album was produced both in The Bahamas and France which perhaps inspired  love, the core message of the album.Track list:

1. Love is stronger than pride 4:18
2. Paradise 4:02
3. Nothing can come between us 4:22
4. Haunt me 5:50
5. Turn my back on you 6:05
6. Keep looking 5:21
7. Clean heart 4:01
8. Give it up 3:50
9. I never thought I see the day 4:13
10. Siempre Hay Esperanza 5:13

MI-SOUL RATING: 7/10MI-SOUL PLAYS: GIVE IT UP