Customer Reviews
Missing Tracks !! ?? - By: Richard H, 11 Dec 2008 
When When When are we gonna get a re-packaged - 24/bit re-mastered verison of this gem. To include also the two additional tracks that were on the original cassette tape release ! !! ... SNAKE BITE & LOVE AFFAIR WITH LIFE..
Timeless...Diamond Life...Loverboy - By: Nadine Sookwa, 20 Apr 2006 
I have been listening to Sade's music since I was 12, & after 13 years, I still love it. Diamond Life is groovy, nostalgic & this is music you'd want to unwind to & to getin the mood for a slow session. Hits such as Smooth Operator, Hang On To Your Love, Your Love Is King are as timeless as Sade is. There are also some new ones that are growing onto me such as Cherry Pie & Frankie's First Affair. Sally reminds me a bit of Jezebel - notin the beat, butin the story of the song. This album is worth more than 5 stars, but I was a bit disappointed with the product that I received from Amazon because the lyrics were not included - & I felt that the product deserved 4 stars because of this.
Not just for Eighties Dinner Parties - By: not_a_real_folkie, 27 Jan 2005 Sade suffered from the same lazy pigeon-holing that plagued Dire Straits' "Brothersin Arms" & countless other albums over the years. The cliche was that you put Dire on to demonstrate your new, shiny compact disc player, & you put Sade's "Diamond Life" on to show your dinner-party guests how sophisticated, yet contemporary you were.
Playing this remastered CD just over 20 years on from the album's first release, the quality of the band's playing & the soulin the vocals comes as quite a surprise. None of these tracks are bad. Some are exceptional. "Hang on to your love" ploughs a muscular groove that is marvellously tight. "Smooth Operator" either celebrates or lampoons the yuppie male of the eighties, concluding ultimately ambiguously. "Your love is King" is allegedly about something very intimate, but I couldn't possibly comment... judge for yourself! The other tracks never really let upin terms of sheer class.
The remaster is goodin terms of quality, although the original CD certainly wasn't awful. The only minor complaint - & true of so many remastered CDs - why no extra B-side-type tracks, such as the excellent "Spirit" that I remember from the "Smooth Operator" single?
Sade's next album ("Promise") was resolutely uncommercial, & pushed the soulful vibe even further. Meanwhile, however, forget the smoothie dinner-party jibes, this has got more soul than a coachload of today's chart hopefuls.
Pure Liquid Elegance - By: Gary F. Taylor, 27 Nov 2003 There has never been a singer quite like Sade Adu. Although she is of Nigerian origin, & her voice is clearly that of a woman of color, she is equally influenced by her English upbringing; the resulting combination of African heat & British coolness, particularly when combined with her band's elegant mixture of American & European jazz idioms & African rythmns, is as original today as when it first appeared. Superficially cool & seemingly detached, everything about the band simmers with an underlying passion.
While Adu & her band 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, & every one of them memorablein the most haunting way imaginable.
Like "Smooth Operator," both "Your Love Is King" & "Hang on to Your Love" actually broke into the charts as singles--a truly amazing feat for a jazz-oriented club bandin the ultra-synthetic 1980s. Butin 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 atmospherein 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, & brilliantly shaped, & 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 this on the stereo--and dream of smoke, the clink of cocktail glasses, & the murmur of voices gone suddenly silent when the band begins to play. Strongly recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Excellent - By: , 04 Nov 2001 Sade were one of the most popular groups of the 1980s & blended subtle rock with sweet soul. They were, for the majority, overlooked by the musical press despite selling albums by the bucketload, & deemed "wallpaper" music. Diamond Life is,in my opinion, the groups finest moment. The songs grip you & caress you into a laidback haze all at the same time. The album takes a couple of listens for its brilliance to really sink in. If you just want an album to relax to when u get back from the pub or club, buy this one.
