Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	A–
Chicago Tribune
Entertainment Weekly	A
The Guardian
Los Angeles Times
Pitchfork Media	7.0/10
Q
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine

Soldier of Love is the sixth studio album by English band Sade, released on 5 February 2010 by Epic Records. Following the release of Lovers Rock (2000), the band went into a 10-year hiatus. In 2008, the band re-grouped in order to begin work on their sixth album, making it the first time each member had been together. The recording of the album primarily took place at the Real World Studios in Box, England, with additional sessions at El Cortijo in San Pedro de Alcántara, Spain. The album's recording began in 2009 and was completed in the summer of that year.

The first single "Soldier of Love" premiered on US radio on 8 December 2009, and was released digitally on 11 January 2010. Subsequent singles "Babyfather" and "The Moon and the Sky" were serviced to US urban AC radio on 13 April and 24 August 2010, respectively.

The album debuted at number four on the UK Albums Chart. It also debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 502,000 copies in the United States, marking Sade's first number-one debut on the chart while also spending three weeks at the top of the chart. Upon its release, Soldier of Love received generally positive reviews from most music critics and won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The band promoted the album with their first concert tour in ten years, Sade Live.

Following an eight-year hiatus, Sade released their fifth studio album, Lovers Rock, which became a commercial success selling 3.9 million copies in the United States by February 2010. To promote the album Sade and the band embarked on their fifth concert tour entitled Lovers Rock Tour. Following the release of Lovers Rock (2000), Sade took a 10-year hiatus, in which she raised her daughter. During this time, Sade made only one rare public appearance in 2002 to accept an OBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. She then moved Gloucestershire countryside where, in 2005, she bought a run-down, stone-built cottage to renovate near Stroud. Sade stated that she was in no rush to release music and was not interested in releasing music just for the sake of selling a product.

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Wikipedia