Joshua Bassett‘s debut album, “The Golden Years,” taps a deep vein of bittersweet nostalgia. Throughout 11 self-penned songs, he charts the highs and lows of late adolescence and early adulthood with the rigor of a documentarian. Which isn’t completely unexpected, given that he spent most of that period under a microscope as an up-and-coming singer and actor — as well as an unwitting figure in a cataclysmic Gen Z drama.
“I’ve been through some of the best and worst years of my life,” Bassett tells PvNew. He quickly admits that “The Golden Years” was essentially a form of therapy to cope with the latter. “Music is one of the only ways I can really process my emotions. I wrote a lot of songs in five minutes or less — I’m not saying that to brag, I just got to this place where I could just kind of vomit it out.”
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And Bassett had a lot to get off his chest. After cutting his teeth in TV commercials, stage productions and church bands, the 23-year-old worked steadily as a child actor before getting his big break in the Disney+ series “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” As his star rose, he was courted by labels and inked a record deal with Warner Records in 2019. A pair of stripped-back love songs, “Common Sense” and “Anyone Else,” soon followed in 2020.
The singer-songwriter’s life turned upside down, however, when Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” erupted on social media the following year. Internet detectives concluded that he was the subject of the instantly viral track from his co-star on the show. The ensuing vitriol triggered a mental health crisis: While Bassett never addressed the situation head-on, he seemingly shared his truth on singles “Lie Lie Lie” and “She Said He Said She Said.”
While “The Golden Year,” an eclectic album that dabbles in everything from folk fare to disco-pop, vaguely touches on the emotional aftermath of that saga, the perspective here is decidedly inward-facing. There’s no relitigating past events; instead, Bassett shares the scars and lingering self-doubt that come keyboard warriors branding you public enemy number one.
An example is the pleading opening track, “Biting My Tongue,” which finds him grappling with being silenced over a gently strummed guitar. “I had so much that I wanted to say, but I felt trapped by not being able to fully express myself and not really wanting to hurt anybody,” he says. “I just felt so defeated.” The song wrote itself, and he soon realized that he had stumbled upon the perfect jumping-off point for an album that sits with sadness and inner turmoil, but ultimately twists and turns toward hope and healing.
One of the most startling glimpses into Bassett’s personal journey comes on “Mirror,” which finds him declaring, “I don’t recognize the face in the mirror” over melancholy piano keys. When asked how he feels about his reflection now, Bassett pauses. “I think there is some healing happening in terms of self-hatred,” he says. “But when you walk through really difficult seasons of your life, you start to look at yourself differently.”
Not that it’s all doom and gloom. Bassett revels in memories of young love on the touching title track. “It’s not that I necessarily want to go back, but I wish I could’ve appreciated the time that I had while I had it,” he says. “You think things are tough, but then you look at a photo from the past and you’re like, ‘Oh, things were not actually that bad, I don’t know why it felt like the world was on fire.'”
It’s no coincidence that the record ends with the quietly defiant “Look How Far You’ve Come,” which is a snapshot of the last few years through the lens of self-love and compassion. Bassett ultimately wants people to feel seen while listening to his music. “The deeper I go within myself, the deeper it resonates.” He wears his transparency as a badge of honor. “It’d be scarier if I was being artificial,” he continues, “but there’s something very powerful in the truth.”
In some ways, “The Golden Years” is both an ending and a beginning. “I definitely feel like I’m ready to close this chapter,” Bassett says. “I’m in a much healthier spot than I was while making the album.”
He’s now ready to celebrate his achievements and look to the future. “I’m excited to see what’s next in my life,” he says. “I walked through all the stages of grief and processed all of those tough things, and now I feel so much lighter and free.”
