Music > Album Reviews

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit

23/03/15

Sometimes something comes along that is totally unexpected. Who would’ve expected an Australian singer-songwriter to come up with something that damned near perfectly combines the Kinks and Squeeze with The Velvet Underground to make something that is both timeless and absolutely current? Like Ray Davies and Difford/Tilbrook, Barnett writes wonderfully witty lyrics. Sometimes they ramble but rambling never did Nick Cave any harm.

Opener Elevator Operator’s tale of commuter rebellion is built on Moe Tucker style drumming. Pedestrian At Best is the The Bad Seeds’ Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! interpreted by Blur. An Illustration Of Loneliness (Sleepless In New York) takes things down a gear and Small Poppies is a blues- jazz show tune. Depreston is a bittersweet tale of suburban contentment. Aqua Profunda! is distinctly Squeeze-like whilst Dead Fox recalls vintage Pretenders.

With its driving bass-line, Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party could be the best thing the Dandy Warhols never wrote. Debbie Downer is an almost perfect 60s garage pop song. The slow-burning Kim’s Caravan rises to a thunderous crescendo of clanging guitars that brings to mind Nadine Shah and PJ Harvey before the acoustic Boxing Day Blues brings a classic album to an unexpectedly gentle, melancholy conclusion.

9/10