"Looking like a postpunk Emmylou Harris and singing with the bruised soul of Marianne Faithfull and Sandy Denny, the upstate-New York-bred, Seattle-based Sykes fronts a band who bring a late-'60s sheen to each of her brooding meditations on life and love. But this is no exercise in nostalgia -- this is folk-rock for the 21st century."  (Metroland)

"The band's sonic scope is expansive, with lilting horn sections, silvery strings and the ethereal tremolo of Wandscher's guitar. The smoldering "The Air is Thin" evokes the feeling of sitting at the end of the bar in a lonely, dimly lit dive. Combining brokenhearted alt-country and warmly alluring psychedelic folk, the song functions as a sad, simmering, beautiful lament. Sykes' vulnerable, flinty voice wilts as if trying to put her road-weary past behind her, as she sings, "Oh, to let go of all that you know / but first you need to be free." It all builds to a cathartic closing-time refrain that only gets better with each new round."  (NPR)

"Jesse Sykes’ darkly theatrical voice forms the distinctive soul of Life, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul. This third Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter album recalls Marianne Faithful, Neil Young with Crazy Horse, the Byrds in their earnest folk-rock days and sunny ’60s Brit pop."  (Baton Rouge Advocate)

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