So it is

" Along with being a joyous and infectiously jubilant album, So It Is offers the one-two punch of letting the Preservation Hall Jazz Band play the kind of raw, no-holds-barred jazz and blues that they helped personally create a renaissance for, while surreptitiously luring their listeners into what often explodes into a full-on Afro-Latin dance party".

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"There are still trad jazz elements present in each arrangement's reliance on the sound of "everyone soloing at once", as was the hallmark of early New Orleans jazz, but each is given a heightened level of energy and intensity that could just as easily get modern listeners moving as those more attuned to jazz's rhythms. In other words, this is a return to the music's dance-oriented roots. So much so that it's virtually impossible to sit still throughout the whole of the album, each track offering its own rhythmically-propulsive dance party in miniature".

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"To anyone familiar with the simple, fragile, sepia-tinted jazz of the veterans who used to play there, this album will come as something of a shock. Loud, funky and brash, it's enough to blow the roof off the old place ... The insistent grooves and catchy riffs will get any party going. But of the relaxed intimacy of the old guys, or even the amiable shambles of a Fats Domino show, little, if anything, remains".

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"In this rather short album, the PHJ Battempts to leapfrog from the 19th century to the 21st, turning sharply from preservation of antiquity to renewal of itself. Tradition is rationed carefully now-a bit of slushy plunger trombone from Ronell Johnson, perhaps. But without the rich logic of the oldNew Orleans melodies, the band feels caged in its own cramped repertoire of relentless riffs. Energy replaces logic. Still, the strong Afro-Cuban accent and tight front line never starve the music of power or punch, and there is almost always a partnership between soloist and band".