After a decade-long hiatus, smooth jazz/R&B legend Sade is back on the scene just in time for Valentine’s Day. The “Goddess of Love” is releasing her first album of new material since 2000’s Lover’s Rock just before the most romantic day of the year. The “Smooth Operator” hitmaker returned to the studio in June and completed work on Soldier of Love last month.

The album will feature a guest spot from Maxwell and is expected to drop Feb. 8, 2010.

Quiet storm soul songstress legend Sade is recording her first album of new material in more than nine years, Billboard.com sources have confirmed.

“She is in the studio and the album will come when it is ready,” a source at Sony Records told Billboard this week. “You don’t wait for years for one and then rush it.”

Sade’s longtime bandmate Stuart Matthewman, a.k.a. Cottonbelly, also confirmed that a new project is in its “early days” but cautioned that the LP won’t be complete until “later in the year.”

Sony has not yet set a release date but hopes to put the record out by the end of 2009.

Sade arrived on the music scene with the release of her 1985 LP Diamond Life, which featured the classic slow jam “Smooth Operator,” “Cherish The Day,” and “Your Love Is King.” Her 2000 album Lovers Rock, sold 3.9 million copies in the U.S.

Janet Jackson says she parted ways with Def Jam executives because they wanted her to be the new Sade.

“There were some people who didn’t like the direction I took with this album (Discipline),” Janet tells Sister 2 Sister Magazine. “They wanted me to sound more like Sade, but I’m not ready for that just yet. I love doing dance songs and I think my fans expect that of me.”