The Besnard Lakes’ previous album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings, was released in 2021. The album, created in the wake of the death of front man Jace Lasek’s father in 2019, explored the darkness of death while searching for light and life on the other side.
In contrast, The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation released today (10th October), 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.
The Besnards retreated to a studio deep in the woods to record Ghost Nation. Lost River Studios in the vast and verdant Laurentian mountains in southern Quebec 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 album, with their trademark intensity and meticulous detail.
Opening track Calling Ghostly Nations sets the tone with a very typically Besnards extended intro, slowly pulling the listener in. What follows is almost an hour to be still, to reflect, and to be mentally transported. Olga’s vocals tiptoe in first, soon joined by Jace’s falsetto, their harmonies forming distinct layers almost visibly shimmering in the air. The song questions humanity’s progress, asking if we have really advanced as a society.
From this meditative beginning, the album drifts into the woozy, fairground organ textures of Chemin de la Baie, what the band calls their “shoegaze song” (though I’d wager there’s more than one contender for shoegaze title). It’s a rippling, immersive piece inspired by a band member’s blissful, mild drug experience in Monterey. The track flows seamlessly into Carried It All Around, examining 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.
One of the tracks that has come to fruition after many years as merely a notion 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 final track Give Us Our Dominion contains a distinctive flourish – a bouzouki line in the chorus, added by guitarist Gabriel Lambert in homage to Goreas’s Hellenic roots. It’s a bright, joyful riff that lifts the song out of its shoegazey, soothing reverie in an unexpected way and closes the album on a positive note.
Ultimately, Ghost Nation doesn’t mark a radical shift for The Besnard Lakes or make a profound statement as the previous album did. Instead, it offers eight beautifully crafted tracks – some long-gestating – that invite listeners to slow down and lose themselves in the band’s soothing, sonic universe. Those five days locked away in the studio, surrounded by the beauty of nature, have paid off: Jace and Olga Goreas’s vocals sound more celestial than ever and the group’s dense, psychedelic soundscapes are rich with emotional texture.
The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation New album released 10th October via Full Time Hobby
The Besnard Lakes
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