Though this testimony seems to lie at the very core of The Art of Loving – or so the titular opener suggests – this is not where we often find Dean elsewhere in the record. With each new track, a new love begins; with each dissolution of a new affair, these new pieces become clearer. Yet, despite the album’s focus on self-discovery, Dean’s singular voice can sometimes begin to dim beneath the album's more dense arrangements. Each time Dean’s voice disappears from the foreground slightly, we drift further away from the record’s emotional centre and closer to something more polished, but notably more impersonal. Even so, it’s in the album’s quietest moment that Dean delivers her most compelling performance yet.