Courtney Barnett is not a creature of habit

When, in 2015, the Australian musician Courtney Barnett debuted with the album “Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit”was greeted with enthusiastic cheers from the community that recognized and appreciated the so-called indie-rock. His qualities were immediately noticed by Jack White which produced her a couple of singles.

Then it happened that Kurt Vileone of the champions of folk rock and the American alternative scene, was in concert in Australia and Courtney was called to open his live show. The two evidently found a certain artistic and human affinity so much so that they decided to create a joint album. So, in 2017 it came out, “Lotta sea lice” (read the review here), Barnett’s second recording step. It was undoubtedly a good idea to collaborate with Vile, it could prove to be a sort of parachute in case the album turned out badly and a pass to get closer to a further slice of the public brought as a gift by the singer-songwriter already in War on Drugs. But above all, more importantly, it was a good record.

At that point, what for many turns out to be the ‘difficult second album’, in reality for Courtney had turned into the ‘difficult third album’. In 2018, the year following the collaboration with Kurt Vile, it shipped to the market “Tell me how you really feel” (read the review here). Courtney sings Courtney and it is the confirmation that the girl has the quality to remain at a certain level.

Now let’s take a leap forward. Next weekend Courtney Barnett will release his new solo album, “Creatures of habit”five years after the previous one, light and acoustic, “Things take time, take time” which deviated, even if only a little, from what she always composed, she dismissed that change by saying: “It’s just an extension of what I’ve always done.”

In the meantime, however, more than something has changed in the singer-songwriter’s world since that album came out in 2021. At the time she was still living in Australia, her mother country, while now the 38-year-old has moved her residence to Los Angeles. This is probably one of the reasons why the new album “Creatures of habit” it was recorded close to home at the recording studio Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert, California. As for collaborations on a song on the album on bass, there is Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and in another he sings Waxahatchee.

Still on the subject of changes, the change of nation coincided with the painful closure of its historic record label, Milk! Records. In response to these changes Courtney decided to pour all that confusion into the recording process. “Creatures of habit” musically it promises to be a return to Courtney Barnett primordial and to a more tense and garage rock, while the main theme of the album concerns how to overcome one’s mental blocks in order to live one’s life to the full. On the diversity that distinguishes her latest works, Barnett said in an interview: “I had a lot of space to make a lot of noise, unlike “These Things Take Time…”, which was written during the COVID lockdown in Melbourne, while I was trying not to disturb the neighbors. If that album comes across as shy, quiet and reflective, “Creature of Habit” is the exact opposite. I also had just moved to America and was having this new adventure, doing a lot of new things and seeing a lot of places So I wanted this album to be really joyful and fun.” A preview of the mood of the album can be had by listening to the singles “Stay in your lane”, “One thing at a time” And “Site unseen”.