Boy Golden (the stage name of singer/songwriter Liam Duncan) centers his fifth studio record, Best of Our Possible Lives, around the lead single and opening track, “Suffer.” Dirty, cosmic guitars swirl around similarly muddy drums that emit a transcendent throb. Razor-sharp lyrics (e.g., “I want to know where my money went / I want a new fucking president”) cut to this cultural moment with brazen honesty, setting the stage that “we all suffer under the cover of the night.” That refrain is the backbone of 12 songs about self-preservation and liberation through life’s most difficult hardships, whether that’s through love, speaking truth to power, relishing in life’s goodness, or a combination of the three.
The chaos outside might upset the human balance within, but Duncan’s resolve to inhale the beauty of the present is addicting. “You can tear things apart / You can make a boy cry / You can break a man’s heart / But you can’t break mine,” he promises in the second track, “The Matter at Hand,” a rhythmic piece upholding perseverance in the face of utter suffering and injustice. Using pain as a conduit for personal transformation that, in turn, changes the world is key.
