Album Review: Genevieve Racette – Golden (Deluxe)

Genevieve Racette released her newest album Golden (Deluxe) on Jan. 30, inviting listeners back into alternative versions of her 2024 album Golden.

The deluxe version of Golden was a way for her to revise, add, and play with tracks from such a pivotal part in her career — an album that transported her to venues overseas. With entirely new songs like “Common Denominator,” her cover of “Come as You Are,” and an a cappella version of “Golden,” it allows listeners another chance to see the layers of her storytelling, experiencing the visceral emotions she has worked through to leave an abusive relationship.

The nationally renowned folk-pop musician has been writing with gentle, compelling resonance since her first EP in 2014. Through her lyricism and ethereal voice, Genevieve has emerged as a rising star in both the French and English-speaking Canadian music scenes, now captivating artists with her sixth album.

This deluxe album presents an unfiltered vulnerability that holds the listeners hand through a journey of insecurity, heartbreak, resilience, and vulnerability in an intimate blend of rootsy guitar and soft folk vocals.

It starts off with the ache of emotions in “From Friends to Strangers” and “X2” that set the scene for the album’s guitar and driving percussion that bring these ballads to life. They are the kinds of songs that come on and transport you into a dramatic music video as you gaze out the rain-soaked window of a car, romanticizing your commute to work.

Then there is raw introspection with tracks like “My Thoughts of You,” “Same Old Me,” “Instagram,” and “Feel Things,” slow confessionals unraveling the core feminine experiences of comparing yourself to others.

Textured layers of rhythmic guitar and voices in harmony become a powerful image of healing. This leads into the stronger electronic background in “Common Denominator” that invokes a renowned power in Genevieve that is really moving.

Each song grows on each other. By the time “Golden” plays, the textures and layers have become more complex, it’s soft but feels like the gentle touch of warm golden hour sunlight in the summer, rather than a rainy window. The album ends being stripped down to pure authentic storytelling of the acoustic version of “My Thoughts of You” and the a cappella version of “Golden”.

Both acoustic and a cappella versions reframe themselves more vulnerably, stripping the song of anything but voice, or voice and guitar. Without other distractions, it becomes even more raw and emotional than before. It completely transforms the earlier reflective melancholic production into something more intimate, with nothing but the pure emotion of her voice.

The way Genevieve layers harmonies create a sense of warmth, as though each song is a hug. The way the guitar, percussion, and occasional violin or piano, work with the vocals to support lyrics creates evocative emotions that sit in the audience’s chest, heavy, like tears might escape.

Her vocals create the sensation of a confession shared among close friends rather than a performance. The simple layering of guitar infuses rootsy charm into her folk-pop lyricism and soulful echoey vocals. Her voice floats over guitar strums, drawing you in to an aching story of girlhood.

Golden (Deluxe) is not just a resuscitated album with a few new tracks, it is a revival. It is echo-laced, soulful vocals that drift over rhythmic guitar and hushed harmonies, carrying lyrics that render intimate, distinctly feminine experiences with a melancholy so tender it feels less like a performance and more like sitting cross-legged on your best friend’s living room floor, trading truths.