She's never been one for animation or fanfare has our Sade. For almost two decades she's been creeping through the musical metropolis like a ghost, quietly clocking up platinum, avoiding the hacks and huddling behind her microphone.
What you see - or rather what you don't see - is what you get. No fancy trills or erratic beats, simply those cool, echoing lullabies that leave you curled up sucking your thumb and dreaming of warm water and slow sex.
So if live albums are meant to herald the unexpected, 'Lover's Live' (recorded on last year's splendid Lover's Rock tour that Vibe hailed as the best of the year) is completely the wrong example. The thirteen tracks gathered from her six album career play more like a greatest hits collection. There's a lot of drippy Californian applause and a few mumblings from Miss Melancholia herself thrown in ("This one's for my little girl", "We feel you", a faint suggestion of a laugh).
It's reliably ethereal, predictably aloof and effortlessly gorgeous. There are none of those irritating diversions that rudely stop you from wailing along to your favourite song (I'm thinking of Jill Scott's recent live set here).
Sade sings her hits as they are; the sweet acoustic 'By Your Side', the almost jubilant 'Kiss of Life', a couple of indispensable oldies like 'Smooth Operator' and 'Jezebel' and a particularly mesmerising performance of 'Sweetest Gift'. Pure and simple, dependable as PG Tips. And that's the way we like her, thank you very much.
