Diamond Life (1984)

Diamond Life announced a band possessing an uncanny mastery of negative space, cool elegance and warm mid-tempo jazz rhythms. Your Love Is King provides the definitive entry point, letting Paul Denman's walking bassline and Stuart Matthewman's understated saxophone wrap around Sade Adu's poised delivery. The personality of the record lies in its supreme discipline, resisting unnecessary flourishes so every syllable carries maximum emotional weight.