Sade’s debut album is a highly accessible, romantic, late-night blend of soul and R’n’B tracks that function as a silky smooth backing to her sensual vocals. It proved hugely successful at the time and there are four big pop hits here. The rest of the material is cut from the same cloth, based around congas, keys, jazzy guitar licks, a slight veneer of 80s digital synths and a crisp pop production. Sade’s distinctive vocals and backing vocals are the absolute stars of the album and ‘Diamond Life’ still sounds warm, intimate and haunting a few decades on.

Diamond Life launched Sade straight out of England in 1984 when its star chanteuse was all of 23. The debut established Sade as masters of a quiet storm-style mood music at a time when both pop and R&B radio overflowed with chintzy keyboards and synthesized beat machines. Known for never conforming their smooth sophisti-pop mixture of jazz and soul to commercial trends, Sade ruled its own lane from ’84 to 2010. The reign begins here on hits like “Smooth Operator,” “Hang on to Your Love” and “Your Love Is King.”