Excite­ment is at record lev­els at Gourmet Gigs Tow­ers as word has winged its way from Mon­tre­al that our favourite band The Besnard Lakes are set to release a new album on 10th Octo­ber via Full Time Hob­by. Going by the title of The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation (when­ev­er did the Bezzies do any album title by halves?), there’s also a sin­gle release out now called In Hol­ly­wood.

This next album comes as a response to their last one in 2021. That was the for­mi­da­ble The Besnard Lakes are The Last of the Great Thun­der­storm Warn­ings – an intro­spec­tive and fair­ly dark but redemp­tive album released after the death of Jace Lasek’s father – Jace being the band’s main singer, song­writer and gui­tarist. The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation is an alto­geth­er lighter and more play­ful work. As for the term Ghost Nation, Jace describes it thus: “It’s talk­ing about the death of nations, the threat of Cana­da being the 51st state. There is the desire to be left alone, to let com­mu­ni­ty be com­mu­ni­ty, all of those things that feel like they might be under siege; that’s what the ghost nation is.”

To record the album, The Besnard Lakes gath­ered in a beau­ti­ful barn at Lost Riv­er Stu­dios, deep in the woods of the Lau­ren­tians. They spend five days com­pil­ing, exper­i­ment­ing and expe­ri­enc­ing the cre­ative soli­tude in the woods, along with some of the band’s fam­i­ly mem­bers. The result is a play­ful yet thought­ful and heart­felt col­lec­tion of psy­che­del­ic sounds and expe­ri­ences, mixed by Lasek at the Rigaud Ranch Studio.

In Hol­ly­wood dates back to 2010 and the era of The Besnard Lakes are the Roar­ing Night. Olga Gore­as, the band’s co-vocal­ist and bass play­er talks about the track­’s con­cep­tion: “It’s a melody that was cir­cu­lat­ing in Jace’s mind for many years. Unable to let it go, Jace sat with it and final­ly brought it to light. Writ­ten in a dropped D tun­ing, In Hol­ly­wood is atyp­i­cal in the Besnard canon. Some very cre­ative synth work from Sheenah in the out­ro. A beau­ti­ful­ly bizarre gui­tar solo from Gabriel. This one shows off Jace’s vocal stylings and has an intrigu­ing lyri­cal jour­ney for the lis­ten­er to discover.”

For all its atyp­i­cal ele­ments, In Hol­ly­wood dis­plays cer­tain fac­tors that remain reas­sur­ing­ly Besnards. Such as the chord change pac­ing, the dreamy and intense feel of the song and that anthemic some­times prog-tinged vibe. Unphased by a need to slot tracks into a 3‑minute for­mu­la, their tracks are allowed to breathe and unfold in a more nat­ur­al and organ­ic way. The track is accom­pa­nied by a nos­tal­gia-drenched video of old Hol­ly­wood but the lyrics… “In Hol­ly­wood to see how high she’d rise; Hol­ly­wood where all are owned” appear to denote that ‘Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’.

Track­list for The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation
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

Pre order the album here: The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation new album release 10th Octo­ber via Full Time Hobby

Pho­tog­ra­phy Olivia Rosen