Pop Matters: "A self-professed 'sucker for short pop songs filled with hooks and devoid of filler,' Drive-By Trucker Jay Gonzalez has spent the last four years composing a five-song medley that incorporates influences ranging from the Beatles and the Who to Joe Jackson and Bread. Writing about life events, the five songs on The Bitter Suite are marked by the loss of a relative, a separation with a musical partner and missing his family while traveling the world." - Eric Risch
Glide Magazine: "Inspired by conceptual rock operas like The Who’s A Quick One While He’s Away and [...] side 2 of Abbey Road, Gonzalez stitched five songs together to flow seamlessly as one piece. The album is a pleasing listen through and through with emotional ups and downs, constant tempo changes, and a kaleidoscope of instruments and sounds performed almost exclusively by Gonzalez [...] Hearing a talented musician embrace this criminally underrated genre is a good thing for anyone who yearns for the relative popularity of genre revivalists like Matthew Sweet and Teenage Fanclub in the Nineties." - Neil Ferguson
Songwriters on Process: "It’s the mark of a catchy melody when I listen to a song once and cannot get it out of my head. That’s what I feel like with [Jay's Mess of Happiness single] 'Turning Me On.' Gonzalez is guitarist and keyboard player for the [Drive-By] Truckers. But his solo stuff sounds nothing like his Truckers work. Gonzalez is an unabashed fan of 70s power pop, bands like The Sweet and The Bay City Rollers. His latest work is called Bitter Suite. For this, he took 5 songs with a similar lyrical theme and linked them musically. According to Gonzalez, 'The Bitter Suite is my take on the classic form used from Bach to Bernstein to the Beatles. The medley, or suite, is a grouping of songs or song sections linked together into one piece, put together in a way to make it arc like a longer piece would, but with the benefit of having each song section be its own entity.'" - Benjamin Opipari
Slate: "I surveyed some friends about their favorite crowdfunded projects from 2014, and the breadth of both the music offered and the way those funding campaigns augmented it was inspiring. Drive-by Truckers keyboardist Jay Gonzalez wanted to record a pop song cycle called 'The Bitter Suite,' so he offered investors a music lesson or a song written especially for them." - Ann Powers
The Key: "Calling all power pop fans! Jay Gonzalez, from the Drive-By Truckers, is stepping out from behind the keyboards and releasing a solo EP, The Bitter Suite, on April 7th. The EP is a 13-minute, five-song power pop medley, and was funded with a Kickstarter campaign." - Bruce Warren
Paste: "Drive-By Truckers keyboardist and guitarist Jay Gonzalez is set to release a solo album titled The Bitter Suite, but it has more in common with the power pop of the mid-‘60s and ‘70s than the alt country the Truckers are known for." - Joe Youorski
Georgia Station: "Jay Gonzalez is keeping old-school alive. His new project 'The Bitter Suite' is a 13-minute, five-song pop-rock medley, inspired by pieces like the Who’s mini-rock opera 'A Quick One While He’s Away' and side two of the Beatles 'Abbey Road' album. Because he’s old school he’s releasing the project as a 180 gram vinyl record with custom etching and original artwork." - Jonathan Miller