The Singles Jukebox

In fact, these days most Roma people live in houses. Love, your fact-checking tagline writer.

[Video][Website]
[5.33]

Cassy Gress: Bonnie Raitt has a lot less passion in this than the songs that made her a star; I know I shouldn’t compare them because she was 25 years younger then, but it’s hard to hear that suede voice and lilting vibrato and not think back. It’s not even just the vocals; the guitars and drums lumber along in a generically bluesy way. Most Americans probably don’t realize “gypsy” is a pejorative, since the Roma aren’t a large minority population here. That’s not really an excuse though; if you have to use a word associated with a particular ethnic group, at least try to pick one that won’t make anyone cringe.
[3]

Alfred Soto: Tough, tight, an aural topic sentence — a triumph of self-production, shrewd playing, effortless singing. Bonnie Raitt does this shit so well that she’s review proof until she’s boring, wich happens from time to time.
[7]

Jonathan Bogart: I’ll never stop rocking her debut album, and the middle-period adult-contemporary Raitt is a force to be reckoned with, but the use of a slur to express a self-congratulatory attitude is far from the only lazy holdover from the 70s being deployed here.
[4]

Crystal Leww: It is very obnoxious that Bonnie Raitt leaned into every single stereotype associated with the terrible slur. It’s even more obnoxious that this is pretty catchy, too.
[5]

Jer Fairall: Sturdy, respectable and unobjectionable in any way, this is exactly how I would expect Bonnie Raitt to sound in 2016, two decades after I last paid any attention to new music from her. The ability to take an especially shopworn road-weary cliche of a lyric and not have it come off as lazy or corny is this song’s greatest achievement.
[5]

Micha Cavaseno: Look, Bonnie Raitt’s gritty tone is pretty unassailable, and there’s little you could do to make her sound bad on a track. But I have to say that plenty of this song is pretty paint by numbers for her, and she could’ve used a bit of flair in the arrangement to sell the song a little better. Instead, it chugs along, eager to make its way without lingering.
[3]

Thomas Inskeep: As Mr. Soto will tell you (and I’ll concur heartily), Raitt’s new Dig In Deep is her best album in a good 15 years. She was an old soul even when young, so aging suits her. And she’s always been randy. I can’t think of another singer who sings PG lyrics and makes them sound so damn sexy. “So I lay it on the table,” she sings, “baby, what you get is what you see.” Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick’s lyrics sound as if they were written for a journeywoman of the blues — as they likely were — and Raitt delivers them as only she can, adding her patented slide guitar for good measure. This is confident music for grown-ups, not fashionable, but one of the best things released this year.
[10]

Edward Okulicz: If there were a few more Roma people in the US, maybe the term “Gypsy” would have been frowned on since Stevie Nicks’ days. It’s a bit icky using it to suggest a woman who sneaks away after stealing… a heart. And the riff suggests deliberate malfeasance, like she’s an outlaw of love, literally. Leaving that aside, the mood suits Raitt’s voice and way with a riff down to the ground. I’m not convinced that the lyrics quite capture a female spin on the male trope of the lover who can’t stay put, but Raitt’s voice does the heavy lifting well enough.
[7]

Brad Shoup: I’m scratching my head at this defiant-wanderer pose from the most static singer/guitarist in rock.
[4]