The world has been waiting for Sade to make a return ever since the band wrapped up promoting their last album Soldier Of Love way back in 2010. Eight years down the road, they've been hinting at new material and taking baby steps to their reintroduction. Our first new track from the group in eight years came in the form of A Wrinkle In Time's "Flower Of The Universe," a lovely ballad that served as the theme for the Ava DuVernay-directed movie. Eight months later, they're back on another soundtrack, this time providing the closing song for director Steve McQueen's upcoming movie Widows.
The song, titled "The Big Unknown," is an original track written expressly for the Viola Davis starrer. In fact, McQueen reached out to Sade Adu herself to get her to write the song specifically for the final scenes of the film, which focuses on the widows of robbers forced to pull off a heist to pay off their husband's debts. She explores the depths of loss and survival on the emotional track. "I'm just trying to hold on / I'm falling in the dark below / I feel I'm falling in the big unknown," she sings in her signature warm tone on the chorus. "Here in the deep below, I will rise / I will rise again / The humble seed will grow." Helping to tell this story of sorrow and eventual triumph is an arrangement featuring soft, thoughtful piano, strings and guitar. They provide the song with its sense of quiet anguish to match the contemplative lyrics, capturing the emotions found in the film — especially those of Viola Davis' character — and showcasing the resilience the women embody in their roles.
"It was an honor to work with such a legend. Sade is an incomparable talent and incredible artist who so rarely releases new material, but luckily the original series of Widows had deeply resonated with her," McQueen said of the experience in a recent Los Angeles Times interview.
Widows will arrive in theaters Stateside this Friday, November 16th. You can hear Sade's latest right now, though, when you take watch the lyric video for "The Big Unknown" below.
