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Three years after her last proper solo album, Courtney Barnett is back with Creature of Habit, a highly anticipated record that sounds loose, lived-in, and quietly obsessed with the way songs echo each other across time. Speaking with Kyle Meredith, Barnett digs into writer’s block, bouncing between Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, and why some songs refuse to leave you alone even when you’re ready to throw them in the trash. Along the way, she also talks about collaborating with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield and Flea, plus how this new batch of songs became one of her most interconnected albums yet. Listen to the episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Barnett admits to having experienced writer’s block before moving to Los Angeles, where she bounced around to different neighborhoods and is still settling in. Despite their being the song “Los Angeles,” she notes that while the constant moving in the city is the “backdrop” to the record, “it’s not really what the album is about at all.” More revealing is her description of fighting through songs that refuse to fully reveal themselves at first. “There’s definitely moments along the way where I’m like, ‘This is not worth it and this is not going to work and I’m wasting my time,’” she says. “But something in me brings me back to it.” She points to tracks like “Mostly Patient” and “Site Unseen” as songs that nearly disappeared forever before finally finding their way onto the album.
That same patience led Barnett to notice how songs can evolve out of older fragments, almost like a musical universe folding in on itself. Barnett lights up at the comparison of lyrical and thematic callbacks to older songs. “I personally love when I’m listening to someone’s discography and you can hear where the other song came from,” she said, citing Leonard Cohen and Harry Nilsson as artists who often did it naturally. She even reveals that the new song “Same” was built from a tiny chord progression buried inside her earlier track “Elevator Operator.” Meanwhile, working with Flea became one of the album’s most joyful moments. “He’s just such an incredible musician,” Barnett says. “He was so connected and so present the whole time.” The result was “One Thing at a Time,” a sprawling live-wire jam that already sounds destined to stretch out even further on stage.
Listen to Courtney Barnett talk about Creature of Habit and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. You can also pick up the record on CD or vinyl, and get tickets to Barnett’s upcoming tour dates here.
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