India Arie – Steady Love

Natasha’s is steady hate…

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[5.86]Natasha Genet Avery: Acoustic guitar, snaps, cajon, two-part harmony–this belongs on a Starbucks-playlist, tuned out by employees and ignored by headphone-clad patrons. And rightfully so, since “Steady Love” goes from milquetoast to actively terrible upon a closer listen. Arie’s lyrics range from the grammatically questionable (“I have never met a man that I wanted to be his wife?”), to the laughably generic (her beau is a “good father” and “good cook” who likes sports-ball). She even manages to botch an “in the sheets/in the streets” joke, forgetting that the formula relies on contrast. A song this sloppy deserves to be drowned out by a whirring espresso machine.
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Nortey Dowuona: A warm, drifting guitar nestles atop a low, simmering bass with an open, slow drum pattern as organ stitched around them with piano on the other side, with India’s husky, raspy growl is full of warmth and humor, a gentle, soothing swath of honeyed soul.
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Alfred Soto: “Steady” is right. Singing platitudes as if she discovered them last night, India Arie regards her man with an attention he returns and then some. The acoustic bass mirrors her jittery heart, pluck by pluck.
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Kylo Nocom: “Steady Love” is written entirely around the delivery of a silly faux-risqué gender reversal of the “lady in the streets/freak in the sheets” meme. In lieu of having actual grit, India.Arie’s maturity is just endearing, and “Steady Love” is the sound of somebody that has settled down well in later adulthood. Just don’t listen to the track on the album after this.
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William John: Some might say the list of qualities in Arie’s paramour provided here aren’t exciting enough to merit much of a hullabaloo. But, frankly, if I had any singing talent at all and had met this quixotic someone that was a good cook and liked to read and was into sports and wasn’t afraid of their feelings AND “touched my soul” AND was a “king in the sheets”, then I’d be turning up the volume and going up at least an octave.
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Thomas Inskeep: “Steady Love” is steady grown folks’ R&B. It’s not exciting, it’s not hip, but it is steady, and solid.
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Isabel Cole: A beautiful sentiment convincingly conveyed and competently executed. Nothing wrong here, but nothing that grabs me, either.
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