True Blue: Boy Golden’s Best of Our Possible Lives out Today
Photo credit: Marisa Barsy
Out today, Boy Golden’s Best of Our Possible Lives makes a major artistic statement through twelve songs of self-discovery, philosophy and honesty. With Best of Our Possible Lives, songwriter/producer Boy Golden explores the self as it was, as it is, and as it can be.
Hypnotic and graceful, the album’s title track offers an invitation: “Come on with me where you will,” Boy Golden sings over gorgeous, floaty tones. He’s found what he was looking for, or rather, it found him. Watch a new visualizer, which captures the album’s origins in the recording studio, here.
“Best of Our Possible Lives lives as a record of a mind and a heart grappling with change, searching for answers through song,” says Boy Golden. “ I know this album and this album knows me. We discovered each other and brought out the best of our possible lives.”
From album opener “Suffer,” Best of Our Possible Lives challenges us to commune and connect. The song’s message - that suffering is always present and shared - is one of acceptance. Anthemic and defiant, “Suffer” is uniquely about our times, for our times.
“The Matter at Hand” picks up where “Suffer” leaves off. Propelled by swampy tones, “The Matter at Hand,” is about what can’t be taken away, a message driven home with the satisfyingly beefy guitar of Austin Parachoniak.
The question of what remains after everything is stripped away is a keyhole into Boy Golden’s creative process. “Cowboy Dreams,” featuring Cat Clyde, follows as a stream-of-consciousness love letter, a fuzzed out commotion over squalling tones. The fluidity and weightlessness of the creative process is also felt in the unrushed R&B groove of “Chickadee,” which reveals a new experimental dimension to Boy Golden’s meditative, unbounded approach.
Part Midnight Gospel, part Journey to the East (and sometimes Graceland in sound and mood), songs like “New Orleans” and “Meadowsweet” travel to far corners of Boy Golden’s dreams. “Moontan,” also featuring Cat Clyde, is built on the Murakami-inspired concept of waiting as the main event. Both “Meadowsweet” and “Moontan” welcome sublime backing vocals courtesy of longtime Church of Better Daze band member FONTINE.
In Boy Golden, the artist Liam Duncan has found a space “free of self-scrutiny and insecurities,” he says. “The lines between him and I are soluble.” A shortcut to the flow state, being Boy Golden grants access to an inner world that can only be known through songwriting.
The new album’s diverse yet cohesive sound is a nod to the studio cast, starting with producer Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Bahamas, Weather Station). The making of Best of Our Possible Lives brought Boy Golden to Lucy’s Meat Market in Los Angeles with Pino Palladino (D’Angelo), Abe Rounds (Meshell Ndegeocello), Gabe Noel (Father John Misty), and Joseph Shabason (Destroyer) alongside Church of Better Daze founding members FONTINE and Austin Parachoniak.
Best of Our Possible Lives shows undeniable growth in sound and complexity. With a stompy belligerence, “Bad Habits” chases enlightenment through relentless self-owning. In “You Got It,” the album’s grimiest sonic moment is set on New Years’ Eve, the cleanest of slates. In these songs, Boy Golden’s steadfast belief in the possibility of change helps face tough decisions with optimism.
At the extreme opposite mood of “Bad Habits” is “Eyes,” a stunning, delicate eulogy. In the face of great loss, “Why?” is the largest of all unanswerable questions. In grappling with death and impermanence, comfort is found in the company of others. With its tender and tuneful vibe, “Like a Child” mirrors the sweet innocence of its message, which is about unguarding the self.
From opening riff to swirling final notes, Best of Our Possible Lives ripples like moonlight on the lake, an invitation to find our own flow.
Best of Our Possible Lives is out today on Six Shooter Records.
VIDEOS
TOUR DATES:
02/28/26 Saskatoon, SK - TCU Place*
03/01/26 Calgary, AB - Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium*
03/02/26 Kelowna, BC - Community Theatre*
03/03/26 Victoria, BC - Royal Theatre*
03/04/26 Vancouver, BC - Queen Elizabeth Theatre*
03/06/26 Edmonton, AB - Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium*
03/07/26 Regina, SK - Conexus Arts Centre - Capital Auto Theatre*
03/12/26 Halifax, NS - Rebecca Cohn Auditorium*
03/13/26 Fredericton, NB - The Playhouse*
03/14/26 Saint John, NB - Imperial Theatre*
03/15/26 Moncton, NB - Capitol Theatre*
03/17/26 Montreal, QC - Club Soda*
03/18/26 Kingston, ON - Grand Theatre*
03/19/26 Kitchener, ON - Centre in the Square*
03/20/26 Ottawa, ON - Southam Hall*
03/21/26 Toronto, ON - Massey Hall*
04/01/26 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck^
04/02/26 Columbia, MO - Rose Music Hall^
04/03/26 St. Louis, MO - The Old Rock House^
04/04/26 Nashville, TN - Cannery Hall^
04/06/26 Louisville, KY - The Monarch Music and Arts Community^
04/08/26 Indianapolis, IN - HI-FI^
04/09/26 Chicago, IL - Schubas Tavern^
04/10/26 Davenport, IA - Raccoon Motel^
04/11/26 St. Paul, MN - Turf Club^
04/28/26 Los Angeles, CA - Moroccan Lounge
04/29/26 Folsom, CA - Folsom Saloon
05/01/26 Portland, OR - Showdown
05/02/26 Seattle, WA - Barboza
05/03/26 Spokane, WA - The District
05/14/26 Washington, DC - Union Stage^
05/15/26 Wayne, PA - 118 North^
05/16/26 Amagansett, NY - The Stephen Talkhouse^
05/17/26 Brooklyn, NY - Baby’s All Right^
05/19/26 Cambridge, MA - Club Passim^
05/20/26 Bennington County, VT - Billsville House Concerts^
06/27/26 Sister, OR - Big Ponderoo
07/02/26 Quincy, CA - High Sierra Music Festival
06/11/26 Saint Paul, MN - Minnesota Country Club Festival
07/30/26 Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon
*w/ William Prince
^ w/ Cat Clyde
ABOUT BOY GOLDEN
A moonstone glow infuses Boy Golden’s Best of Our Possible Lives, an album that reveals its properties - intuition, emotional balance and transformation - through twelve songs of self-discovery. With Best of Our Possible Lives, songwriter/producer Boy Golden’s artistic approach is as philosophical as it is musical. This new work finds him mid-journey, on a quest for honesty with a willingness to examine and accept the self as it was, as it is, and as it can be.
Buoyant, smooth and disarming, as a whole Best of Our Possible Lives draws lines from the Tulsa sound to swampy New Orleans folk. With the lo-fi mystery of mk.gee, the laid-back swagger of MJ Lenderman and the lyrical intimacy of Waxhatachee, Boy Golden’s music is fresh, observational and honest. His melodies wax nostalgia for the giants (think Paul Simon, Tom Petty and J.J. Cale), yet ring true as the work of a young artist, right now.
Who is Boy Golden? A conduit for creation, this artistic persona is both an abstraction and a distillation. A shortcut to the flow state, perhaps, Boy Golden grants access to an inner world that can only be known through songwriting. His previous three albums, which include the wistful JUNO Award nominated For Eden, rollicking For Jimmy and debut album, Boy Golden’s lemon yellow leisure suited Church of Better Daze, have served as a psychic clearing of way for Best of Our Possible Lives. “Each new body of work I have finished has pushed me personally towards greater acceptance of myself as a whole person.”
