Real life

"Real Life is far from adventurous in terms of its songwriting - too often, the structures seem slightly by-the-numbers. The tense, ascending strings towards the end of Honest are the closest we get to experimentation and are compelling enough to make you wish Sandé had taken similar risks elsewhere ... That said, by clinging on to her soul-inflected roots, Sandé manages to avoid any modern pop tropes, which at least gives the album a disarming authenticity".

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"Like Sandé's two previous studio albums, it's based in mature pop, but its integration of other genres and styles - a little reggae, some blues, disco, and more gospel than ever -- is done with more finesse. The seamlessness, combined with full-hearted vocal performances, counteracts all the platitudes and flying-bird-as-freedom metaphors" accented".

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