Ontario’s Katie Dauson has never sounded too interested in keeping country, folk, rock ’n’ roll and classic pop in separate boxes. On Fresh Sugar, those worlds happily crash into each other, and the result is a bright, warm-hearted little banger that feels instantly lived-in. The song itself arrived in much the same way: almost by accident, with the title and hook popping into her head while she was spinning a Raspberries record on vinyl.
At heart, this is a love song with absolutely no shame about being one. Katie leans all the way into the rush of falling hard for someone, that dizzy moment when another person suddenly turns your normal day-to-day existence upside down. Love hits like a freight train, pulls like a magnet and electrifies the soul. Fresh sugar becomes the perfect shorthand for all of it: sweetness, pleasure, energy, that ridiculous glow you get when everything feels new. There’s no irony here, no clever emotional distancing. It’s all feeling, all the time, packed into big, simple images and a chorus that keeps the sugar rush going.
Musically, the country side is easy to hear in the guitar twang and the loose, easy momentum, with a touch of Emmylou Harris in the mix. But the bones of the song feel much more like seventies pop-rock: a handful of chords, a rhythm that keeps rolling forward and a melody that sticks close to the words. There’s even a little Lou Reed in Katie’s dry, straight-ahead phrasing, although everything around her is far sunnier: clean guitars, piano and a melodic glow that nods back to The Raspberries and late-sixties pop.
And then there’s Katie’s voice, which might be the song’s biggest charm. There’s something wonderfully old-school in her tone and delivery, a faint echo of fifties female vocalists without ever slipping into pastiche. That mix of innocence, warmth and plain-spoken emotion gives Fresh Sugar its personality. It pulls off something deceptively difficult: making uncomplicated happiness sound completely convincing.
More from Katie Dauson on Instagram | Facebook | YouTube