Sugar & joy

"The anecdotal style the band have embraced since day one makes for a boot-stomping adventure in narrative. Romantic mournfulness collides with aggression and ecstasy in a series of virtually self-contained anecdotes. The excitement is in the fluctuations, as we dance and sway through 13 tracks of fresh personas and personal mythologies. And though Sugar & Joy is as outrageously fun as any of their previous records, it may be their most soulful feat yet".

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"There is a feeling, when first listening to the album, of anticipation, of wondering in what direction these bunch of outrageously talented musicians might head with the next track. The only consistent here is the quality and the sheer infectiousness of the music. High class hooligans indeed".

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"Sugar and Joy shows there's a lot of life in the corner of roots music where playing loud and fast while also leaving room for slower, more nuanced songs is considered a great combination. Some of the Dead South's older contemporaries in the genre have moved into more elaborate, orchestrated work (hello, Avett Brothers) or focused on the improvisation side of their music (Greensky Bluegrass). So it's nice to hear an album that embraces the core tenets of 21st-century Americana (or Canadiana, in the Dead South's case) while still doing their own thing. Sugar and Joy is one of the most entertaining albums I've heard in 2019".

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