– Rebecca Kasuba, Staff Writer
The Art of Loving
The Grammy-award-winning Best New Artist, Olivia Dean, gives us her third studio album, The Art of Loving. In it, “Baby Steps” explores what it means to love and how we learn and grow from taking things slow. Warming our hearts and spreading a message about loss worth listening to.
The Sound of Loving
Olivia Dean’s sound is a unique combination of smooth jazz and soft pop. “Baby Steps” capitalizes on this sound, using it to invoke a vulnerability for the listener. When listening, the song feels as if it’s walking alongside its listener, comfortably, guiding us through.
The soft voice of Dean coaxes us through the song, grounding. As if the song is reminding us of the growth we have left and how it’s okay to go slow. Even though “Baby Steps” feels more solemn compared to the rest of The Art of Loving, like the other songs on the album, it highlights love and what it means to experience it.
Lyrical Steps
This is shown through Dean’s lyricism and how well the album’s theme relates to love. But “Baby Steps” is more capitalizing on the loss of love, a natural part of the experience. For example, Dean sings “In truth, we’re worlds apart, I’m used to being near you.” Revealing, a sense of heartache for the loss of this unknown someone.
Diving deeper, Dean sings “I’ll be my own pair of safe hands…I’m taking baby steps.” Illustrating this idea of self-love which seems to be the essence of this song. Almost as if Dean is urging the listener to love themselves just as much as they love others. At the end of the day, people will come and go, so we must have love for ourselves, even if the process is foreign and slow.
So Easy (To Want More)
If you’re looking for more you can listen to the whole of The Art of Loving by Olivia Dean on streaming. She also performed her hit song “Man I Need” at the Grammys this year, go check it out!
