Sade is on no one’s timetable — she seems, in fact, to revolve independently of the Earth. It’s been nearly seven years since we heard new music from one of music’s most-prized and most intermittent voices — but all it took, apparently, was a request from director Ava DuVernay. “I never thought she’d say yes, but asked anyway,” DuVernay wrote when announcing the new song, “A goddess.”
The track is classic Sade — a lush, honey sway, a voice like thick, slow-motion silk. “Flower of the Universe” will appear on the stacked soundtrack to DuVernay’s upcoming adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, the 1962 children’s science-fiction novel by Madeleine L’Engle.
It’s the first release from Sade since The Ultimate Collection, a 2011 best-of compilation that also included two unreleased originals, “I Would Never Have Guessed” and “Love Is Found” (and, notably, a cover of Thin Lizzy’s “Still In Love With You”). The year before, she released her last full-length studio album, Soldier of Love.
The new track was produced by the Grammy-winning No I.D., known for his work on the title track to Jay-Z’s 4:44 and the historically aware, but modernist, downtempo patinas of the song, “The Story of O.J.”
There’s no telling when this orchid will blossom again, so savor it.
(NPR)
Discover more from Vitascope
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
