The Golden Years is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Joshua Bassett, released on July 26, 2024, through Warner Records.

[7][8][9] He described his third EP Sad Songs in a Hotel Room (2022) as a "stepping stone" to his debut studio album, which he revealed "[wasn't] done yet".

[10] In early 2023, Bassett revealed via his social media and in his cover story for the spring-summer issue of Behind The Blinds magazine—that the album was titled Complicated, at the time.

[13] In a press release, he stated that the album "[encapsulates] the bitter-sweet nostalgia of [his] late teens and early twenties" and described it as a "love-letter to "the golden years" of his life [thus far]".

Jeffrey Davies of Slant Magazine complimented the album's themes and lyrical content, with Bassett being praised for "maintaining a slower and steadier pace" with the songs.