[Steppin' Out is] an excellent, no-nonsense display of Armatrading's power as a performer and composer. Avoiding the extremes of folkie mawkishness and safe detachment, she goes for a smoldering middle ground where emotions and canny intelligence reach a temporary truce…. It's enough to give the singer-songwriter a good name.

Jon Young, "Hit and Run: 'Steppin' Out'," in Trouser Press (copyright © 1980 by Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press, Inc.), Vol. 7, No. 5, June, 1980, p. 40.