Westelaken - The Golden Days are Hard (2020)

Following the dynamic post-country blends of their 2018 self-titled debut, Westelaken have returned with their sophomore full-length album. Titled The Golden Days are Hard, the latest from the Toronto outfit can be heard and purchased below.

Across its 10 tracks, The Golden Days are Hard finds the foursome of Alex Baigent, Rob McLay, Jordan Seccareccia and Lucas Temor weaving wistful alt-country with a potent blend of influences including folk, blues, post-punk and pop. The record features fellow Torontonians Slurry chipping in group vocals, while that band's Rachel Bellone also takes a solo turn on "Grace."

The album's songwriting demands the grip of one of Westelaken's handmade lyric booklets, though a brief guide to the "ten types of songs" present gives a good indicator of feel. For instance, the steady "Grace" is "a dying and living type song," while the driving "White Lichen" is " a 'you break it you buy it' type song."

As guitarist/vocalist Seccareccia explains in a statement, the 10-track set has been a long time coming — the title track was written in 2012, while other inclusions are nearly as old.

"We spent a long time going back and forth on the album title," he writes. "For me it always seemed like the obvious thing. Part of the reason I like it is that there's an awkward kind of homeliness to it; it sounds like some cliche or the kind of thing you'd see on a decorative ceramic plate hanging at grandmother's house.

Just like a lot of homely things you see hanging on the wall at grandmother's house, upon inspection, it is actual nonsense, like 'dogs leave paw prints on your heart' or 'backyard guests are best.' That mixture of sentimentality and incoherence kind of gets at the ideas going on in the album lyrically and musically; ideas about grace and peace and noise and country music."

Arriving alongside the album is a video for "Mercy, 'milk-of-human-kindness'," helmed by Ryan Al-Hage of Thank You So Much. A song that Seccareccia feels "represents this album at its most chaotic," its accompanying visuals find the band exploring a particularly barren Ontario Place — dutifully masked up, of course.

"We gave Ryan the album and asked if he wanted to pick a song to turn into a video, and when he picked this one I think it made us all excited and relieved that this bizarre thing seemed to work for someone," Seccareccia writes. "We filmed it at Ontario Place, where it almost feels like you're walking around in ancient ruins. It turned out pretty fun and silly in a way that compliments the sort of unhinged nature of the song. It has a cameo from our friend Dave. We were attacked by a dog. You can also hear Paul having a lot of fun in the mix."

The Golden Days are Hard was recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Paul Vroom at the pharmacy, while piano was recorded with Little Kid's Kenny Boothby. The album's artwork, seen above, comes courtesy of Erica Young.