[4] Some of the album's sessions took place during a two-week sojourn in Provence, utilising an SSL E-series console housed at the barn-shaped, concrete-built Studio Miraval.

[4] Studio One is where the production team initially listened to several of the songs in demo form, although Pela was at the Royal Albert Hall when he first heard one of the new tracks.

[4] The album's lead single was created at Power Plant's Studio One, where a 30 × 25 × 18-foot live area was complemented by a 36-channel Harrison Series 24 console, UREI 813B main monitors and a 24-track Studer A820 recorder running Ampex tape at 30ips.

[6] In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Anthony DeCurtis felt that "the careful elegance of the production and instrumental settings seems little more than a strategy to conceal the limitations of Sade's vocal range and skills as a song stylist".

[11] The Village Voice's Robert Christgau commented, "Even when it's this sumptuous, there's a problem with aural wallpaper—once you start paying attention to it, it's not wallpaper anymore, it's pictures on the wall.

"[12] Ron Wynn of AllMusic was more positive in his retrospective review, stating that the album was superior to the band's debut and describing Sade as the "personification of cool, laid-back singing", despite "seldom extending or embellishing lyrics, registering emotion, or projecting her voice.

"[7] In a retrospective review for Pitchfork, Naima Cochrane called Promise "lush and unhurried" and "the ideal second album, firmly establishing the Sade template without retreading the same material of the band's debut."

Cochrane felt that "You can wrap yourself up in the music and Adu's soft-touch tone, recall or lament life and love through the lyrics, or fully immerse yourself with both.