Creature of Habit – Courtney Barnett

By Lucy Kerr

Five years have passed since Courtney Barnett’s last studio album, Things Take Time, Take Time. In that time she closed her record company, moved from Australia to LA, and suffered from writer's block as she tried to write a next album. Her latest release, Creature of Habit, is Barnett’s attempt to capture these tumultuous last few years. For the most part this record is an enjoyable listen, it’s relaxed indie rock sound as comforting as it is familiar. However, the familiarity of this sound fits awkwardly in an album trying to encapsulate a period of major change. As a result, Creature of Habit finds itself bouncing between feeling insightfully engaging and incongruously generic.

The album starts off strong with the high energy track ‘Stay in Your Lane’. This track is probably the album’s most danceable, the upbeat rhythm and punchy guitar plays nicely with the song’s somewhat gruesome lyrics. It’s thumping drums and bass both align with Barnett’s droning chanted vocals while also providing a much needed point of engagement to a song that walks a thin line between catchy and overly repetitive.

This upbeat sound immediately transitions to a much gentler tone in the album’s next few tracks. While all individually lovely, these songs begin to bleed together through their similarities in tone and tempo. ‘Site Unseen’, which features Barnett’s fellow indie darling Waxahatchee, is the track that stands out the most in this meandering section of the album. The song’s lyrics seem to speak directly to the album’s contexts, with Barnett discussing getting in your own way, letting go, and the process of making life changes in the opening verse. Beyond the honesty of its lyrics, the track sets itself apart through Waxahatchee’s backing vocals, which add a refreshing depth to Barnett’s relatively one-note vocals on this album.

‘Mantis’ starts off the second half of the album and marks the beginning of a particularly strong section of the track list. The warm guitar and breezy background vocals draw you in as Barnett begins to unpack the recent tumult in her life. Barnett also trades in her signature monotone vocals for increasingly earnest belting that gives the song even more charm.

‘Mantis’ is followed by ‘Sugar Plum’, likely the album's most lyrically playful track. Despite the engaging lyrics, the track still struggled to stand out as it returned to the relaxed indie rock accompaniment that had started to sound overfamiliar by this point on the album. However it’s quickly followed by ‘Same’ which (ironically) feels like the track where Barnett plays with her sound the most. The song had an almost retro quality to it, with what feels like an 80s synth pop influence and a very playful use of the keys at several points in this song, ranging from bright to robotic. It also embraces a more danceable instrumental again, which is a nice change of pace at this point in the album. However, the overfamiliar sound returns for the albums last tracks, although closing track ‘Another Beautiful Day’ features a real ear worm of a chorus.

While the album has 10 tracks that are all enjoyable listens individually, the composition of the album’s track list feels imbalanced. The album’s strongest tracks are clumped together in the latter half of the record, missing the opportunity to break up the areas where the album drags a bit as the early songs bleed together.

Beyond the order of the tracks, the album’s main shortcoming was that even though the lyrics unmistakably tell stories about change, I couldn’t hear that same change in the music. I had hoped that the writer's block and major move might have inspired Barnett to experiment more with her signature sound. I was a bit disappointed to hear that her introspective lyrics exploring her recent life changes were set to music that seemed very familiar. 

For the most part the album follows a successful formula: Barnett’s simple but pleasant vocals accompanying a variety of guitar riffs make for a relaxed but not necessarily super attention grabbing listen. It’s an archetypical formula for many indie rock acts, and it’s one that Barnett has used in many of her previous releases. It’s a sound that plays to Barnett’s skills: it allows her to show off her talented guitar playing and keep the focus on her clever lyrics rather than her singing. However, the lack of novelty means the album winds up feeling pretty generic among both her own discography and within the broader indie music scene. 

Antithetical to the album’s name, Creature of Habit is at its best when Barnett deviates from the familiar. The standout tracks of the album like ‘Mantis’ or ‘Same’, work so well because they feel like Barnett is doing something earnest and unique, rather than simply following what she knows to be a successful formula. Still the album ultimately remains enjoyable despite its imperfections. Hopefully this album is setting the stage for more projects to come from Barnett as the dust settles on her turbulent past few years.