The title refers to our treatment of her latest single, of course.

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[6.50]

Britt Alderfer: I like how on a track called “Tough Love” Ware has moved into her upper range and expressed a new vulnerability; wisely, that’s the point. She’s worried about hitting these notes live, but I have no doubt that she can do it. Let it be known that I am a fan of Jessie Ware. I just want to forever ban the word ‘classy’ being used to describe her, as if restraint is what makes her music good and we can stop right there. Being down-to-earth is not automatic virtue; it’s a calculated choice, too. The swoops of her music seldom cause anxiety; instead she trades in a kind of eventual trust, comes at me like a disarming friend in a confidential chat. She makes me think of the sensuality of hands, gazes from across a room, upcoming weddings, a particular blue dress, rain that won’t stop, certain frequented bars, a dogeared white book. I think of an itinerary of past and future relationships to her album Devotion, like places marked on a map. I think of how she put her boyfriend in her music video and how they are now planning to be married this year in Greece. And too, her quiet moments, and mine, are the subject of love songs. “Tough Love” slows it down to hit harder, and is a success.
[9]

Brad Shoup: Tough doesn’t have to drag in the same connotations, I suppose, so we don’t have to pretend the kick drum is someone ragged and right setting you to sleep. Ware’s not experiencing tough love so much as summoning it; she sings “tough” with a new trailing syllable, snapping the word off for emphasis. The synths shudder and settle around her, as determined as their master to make something happen, specifically — spoiler alert — those Kiesza coos.
[7]

Alfred Soto: With a gated Linn drum programmed with an ear bent towards “Computer Blue” and a vocal pushing at the limits of her range, Jessie Ware edges closer to a gossamer-enclothed melodrama, unencumbered by connections to the human race. I don’t mind this, but after “Imagine It Was Us” showed she could boogie I want out of her head.
[6]

Thomas Inskeep: I’ll pretty much give a 5 off the top to anything using that Linn drum from “The Beautiful Ones.” Another point because Ware’s voice is lovely. No more than that because 10 minutes after the song’s done, I can barely remember it.
[6]

Anthony Easton: Softer and sadder than the Gotye sound, but nearly as wistful. Most of the points here are for how “tough love” sounds like “Tupelo” a tiny bit, and I wanted an Emmylou Harris remake. 
[6]

Patrick St. Michel: Plus one for production team BenZel dropping their doofy “Japanese high school girls who love making socks and listening to J Dilla and dress up as Hello Kitty or something” characters, because that was the worst. That’s about the only positive development though, as “Tough Love” is a pretty unremarkable mid-tempo ballad where simply sounding squiggly is a stand-in for any real interesting production touches or drama.
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