Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit – Album Review

We’ve been blabbing on about Courtney for a while now, and we’re not even sure why. If you listen to the music, there’s not too much of interest. It’s pretty run of the mill shouty rock, the type of thing you’d skip over and not bother too much about. There is the odd moment of guitar bliss where everything bounces, ‘Pedestrain at Best’ being the obvious example, but a lot of it sounds quite average. The difference here is that she is a woman with something to say. The lyrics and that wonderful rasping Australian accent that sounds like it’s straight out of Muriel’s Wedding. You become so familiar with people trying to sing in fake American accents, regardless of their origin, it is a breath of fresh air.

Sometimes the lyrics seem rambling, without any hint of metre or rhyme, but they’re good honest rants about whatever is on her mind. It’s not that they cut to the bone, more that they’re amusing and quite unlike anything you hear in the common or garden love song. It’s actually hard to describe the subject matter, they vary so much over the course of the song. It is this type of free wheeling song writing that is reminiscent of John Grant, which is a nice comparison to make.

Jen insists that we buy organic vegetables
And I must admit that I was a little skeptical at first
A little pesticide can’t hurt
Never having too much money, I get the cheap stuff at the supermarket
But they’re all pumped up with the shit
A friend told me that they stick nicotine in the apples – Dead Fox

This is the follow up to Courtney’s impressive Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas. For those that spotted the name of the album as a quote from A.A. Milne (Winnie the poooh), go straight to the front of the class. Any friend of Winnie…

It’s rare that you get hype about someone before they have released their first album, but this was certainly the case here. The press were all over her in SXSW, and I can only see it building. Somehow I can only see Courtney sneering at it all and it making good fodder for another collection of songs!

‘put me on a pedestal and I’ll only disappoint
you tell me I’m exceptional and I promise to exploit you
give me all your money and I’ll make some origami honey
I think you’re a joke but I don’t find you very funny‘ – Pedestrian at Best

Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit:

01 Elevator Operator
02 Pedestrian at Best
03 An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in NY)
04 Small Poppies
05 Depreston
06 Aqua Profunda!
07 Dead Fox
08 Nobody Really Cares if You Don’t Go to the Party
09 Debbie Downer
10 Kim’s Caravan
11 Boxing Day Blues