, which is really a band, though it does bear the name of its most famous member, Sade Adu, keep a low profile, if such a thing can apply to a group that has sold more than 20 million albums.

Almost everything about Sade's music has an understated delivery. Their Portland show Monday is part of only their second tour since 1994, and while 10 years elapsed between 2000's "Lover's Rock" and last year's "Soldier of Love," that didn't keep the album from quietly going platinum.

The same goes for their recent greatest hits compilation, their second, "The Ultimate Collection." Though without looking I would be hard-pressed to name more than 10, the album includes 29 singles from a career spanning roughly the same number of years.

Sade were early staples on MTV, and songs like "Smooth Operator," "Never as Good as the First Time," "Sweetest Taboo" and " No Ordinary Love" received enormous airplay on a multitude of radio formats. They crossed racial lines, genre lines and time lines; Sade is hard not to like.

Sade and John Legend

When:

7:30 p.m. Monday

Where:

Rose Garden, 1 Center Court, 503-797-9619

Tickets:

$39.50-$149.50,

Websites:

,

From its inception, Sade were as notable for the calm and sultry smoothness of their sound as for the beauty of their singer. Both elements have remained consistent. It helps that Adu was never a belter. They never employ vocal or musical acrobatics, making aging gracefully all the easier.

If anything, Adu's voice has become even husky and sexier. The production and music -- down-tempo before it was a genre -- remain timely with melted martial drumbeats and glacial guitar chunks. Tricky, Portishead and Massive Attack owe much of their trip-hop sound to the one that Adu, Stuart Matthewman, Paul Spencer Denman and Andrew Hale developed in the '80s.

Their approach hasn't fluctuated much, almost to the brink of repetition, but monotony is kept at bay by the mysterious atmosphere and undercurrents of sexuality. I don't care how crusty a rocker your date may be, dropping the needle on a Sade record can only help your chances of romance for the night. Indeed, love has been a consistent central theme on their albums. "Your Love Is King," "Hang on to Your Love," "Love Is Stronger Than Pride," "Love Deluxe," "Soldier of Love" ... you get the idea.

Opener

isn't unfamiliar with the topic, either. While his approach comes from a gospel background, romance is in full effect on his albums. An early protégé of Kanye West's, Legend lent his vocals to sweeten singles by Jay-Z, Kanye, Slum Village, Alicia Keys and Dilated Peoples. His own debut, "Get Lifted," came out in 2004, featuring the No. 1 single, "Ordinary People."

Since then he's been a regular R&B chart topper and Grammy winner over the course of four full lengths. His latest, "Wake Up!" -- a collaboration with hip-hop legends the Roots -- exhibits a '70s-style socio-political bent.

With Legend's love-sexy R&B and Sade's languorous soul, this show has the potential to be one of the great date concerts of all time.

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