True Sadness

True Sadness received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 68, based on seventeen reviews.

Sarah Brooks of Consequence of Sound gave a positive review stating "With True Sadness, The Avett Brothers open up to their audience, sharing their dark depths with tenacity and bravado, all while inspiring to see struggles as strength." Will Hermes of Rolling Stone gave The Avett Brothers a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Hermes stated "It feels like the record's most profound celebration - just joyous strumming, bowing, and the sound of earnest voices collectively making light out of dark." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave a review a 7/10 "Far from being an album for wallowing in the depths of grief, True Sadness is a record about the emergence of hope."

The Avett Brothers promoted the album by performing on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 24, 2016.

In its home country of the United States, True Sadness debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200, with 46,000 equivalent album units, behind Drake's Views and Lemonade by Beyoncé. It was the best-selling album of the week, selling 43,000 copies in its first week.

from Allmusic

• Scott Avett, lead vocals, background vocals, banjo, acoustic guitar, harmonica, percussion, synthesizer
• Seth Avett, lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
• Bob Crawford, bass guitar, upright bass, guitarron, percussion, viola, background vocals
• Paul Defiglia, Hammond B-3 organ, piano, Wurlitzer, upright bass, percussion, background vocals
• Tania Elizabeth, violin, percussion, background vocals
• Joe Kwon, cello, percussion, background vocals
• Mike Marsh, drums, percussion, background vocals