The Besnard Lakes’ previous album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings, was created after the death of the father of Jace Lasek in 2019. The Besnard Lakes’ front man created songs that helped him work through his emotions as he explored the darkness of death, while searching for light and life on the other side. Review here.
That was then, this is now and the Montreal band are in a different place. The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation released 10th October 2025, finds the members in a more upbeat and relaxed place. Jace Lasek even describes the new album as ‘playful’. But hang on… not all is rosy in the garden. Take the album title, which refers to the unsettling, if flippant, notion of Canada becoming “the 51st American state”, rhetoric that the band say, asks questions about identity, community, and belonging. And although not a political album, there are broader references within it.
In order to record Ghost Nation, The Besnards retreated to a studio deep in the woods – Lost River Studios in the vast and verdant Laurentian mountains in southern Quebec. This space became the band’s home for five days while they drew from a mix of new material and some long-shelved ideas to shape the new work.
The opener Calling Ghostly Nations sets the tone with a very typically Besnards extended intro, slowly drawing in the listener. Olga’s vocals tiptoe in first, soon joined by Jace’s familiar falsetto, while their harmonies play off each other, almost visibly shimmering in the air. The lyrics tackle questions about the progress of humanity, questioning how – and if – we have really advanced as a society.
From this contemplative beginning, the album drifts into the woozy, fairground organ textures of Chemin de la Baie, this is what the band calls their “shoegaze song” (though I’d wager there’s more than one contender for shoegaze title on this album). It’s a soothing, immersive piece inspired by a band member’s blissful, mild drug experience in Monterey – no name given but we can probably guess who. There’s an ‘all’s right with the world’ feel going on here. A natural flow carries the track seamlessly into Carried It All Around, which examines the emotional burdens we bear and the courage it takes to let them go. With rippling guitars and the harmonies in the chorus settling over the track like a balm, this is one of the high points of the album, a cathartic, tender and emotional song.
One of the ‘long-shelved’ tracks that comes to fruition here is In Hollywood. Its departure in style from the rest of the album makes it a curious choice as the first single although it makes a welcome contrast on the album. Written in a dropped‑D tuning – unusual for the band – it rumbles with tension and an ominous doom-laden heaviness. The lyrics explore ambition and ownership (“In Hollywood, to see how high she’d rise, Hollywood where all are owned”).
The closer, Give Us Our Dominion, contains a distinctive flourish – a bouzouki line in the chorus, added by guitarist Gabriel Lambert in homage to bass player Olga Goreas’s Hellenic roots. It’s a bright, joyful riff that lifts the song out of its shoegazey reverie in an unexpected way and closes the album on a positive note.
Unlike the previous work, Ghost Nation doesn’t mark a radical shift for The Besnard Lakes or make a profound statement. Instead, this new work offers eight beautifully crafted tracks that invite listeners to reflect, be transported and lose themselves in the band’s soothing, sonic universe. Those five days locked away in the studio, surrounded by the beauty of nature, produced a bounty of riches: the group’s dense, psychedelic soundscapes are replete with emotional texture and Jace and Olga’s vocals sound more celestial than ever.
The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation album release date 10th October via Full Time Hobby
WEBSITE | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC | YOUTUBE
Tracklist
1. Calling Ghostly Nations
2. Chemin de la Baie
3. Carried It All Around
4. In Hollywood
5. Pontiac Spirits
6. Battle Lines
7. The Clouds are Casting Shadows from the Sunlight
8. Gives Us Our Dominion