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Apr 08, 2026 Web Exclusive By Celine Teo-Blockey

Almost a decade after Courtney Barnett captured our imagination with the wry, hyper-observant voices of her over-active interior life comes her fourth album, Creature of Habit, where she’s now joined by an equally formidable external chorus of people offering unwelcome counsel. She employs her usual clap back in a perfectly formed song such as “Great Advice.” “I appreciate your great advice but I don’t want to do my hair up nice,” she snarks, then sweetly coos, ”I like it this way.” It’s delivered in her comforting sprechgesang while cowbell and blown-out guitar conjure a cartoon villain stepping into an open manhole—attesting to how ridiculous if not offensive these well-meaning salves can be.

On “Wonder,” despite the sparkling guitar and easy melody, it doesn’t pique merry wonderment but mild paranoia about what she thinks is said about her when she’s not in the room.

Ever searching for meaning, Barnett finds that it’s in the natural world that they reveal themselves. Or that she is willing to succumb to: “There’s no such thing as a perfect melody but I keep searching every morning from the trees,” she sings Wordsworthian-like on “Mantis.” Sighting a praying mantis, a symbol of stillness and meditation, is believed to be a good omen. Barnett saw one at an opportune time and took it as a sign from the universe that everything will be okay, despite the upheaval in her life. This tiny creature also lends itself to her album cover art.

After winding down Milk! Records, the record label and relationships that have been entwined with her rise to international success, Barnett moved from Melbourne, Australia to California in 2023. “Stay In Your Lane” and “Same” (where she sings “Maybe I’m grieving the idea, of how I thought I might be”)—both evoke the self doubt and second guessing that comes with change and letting go.

And she says as much on the rollicking “One Thing At a Time”—“Oh my God, I’m ready for the change!” And like an ode to a new life in her adopted city, “On a scenic drive…flying down the highway, wrong way, sun in my eyes,” she sings, of fixing it all. The Lance Bangs-directed music video has her in the driver’s seat of a yellow Chevy truck, breezing through the Hollywood hills. When she arrives at the summit, she gets out and plays a blissed out guitar solo on her white Stratocaster (à la Jimi Hendrix, one of her left-handed guitar heroes) like she’s standing among giants, the city alongside her. She’s where she’s meant to be right now. A far cry from where she was in her raw 2023 documentary Anonymous Club.

According to the album’s press release, painter Georgia O’Keeffe has been an obsession of hers for some years. Barnett herself has a visual art background and created the artwork for her old label as well as several album covers. She reveals that she used recipes from O’Keeffe’s cookbook to make meals for her band while recording. Importantly, after images of Barnett sounding sullen and withdrawn on endless tours and gas station meals in Anonymous Club, the act of taking care of herself and those around her feels revelatory.

Creature of Habit illustrates that hard as it can seem, we can change for the better. “Site Unseen” (featuring harmonies from Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield) and “Sugar Plum” are bright songs about daring to take risks and surrendering to the chaos, but the album’s best takeaway is to be found in her sun-drenched album closer “Another Beautiful Day.” Tune out the negative voices and when moments of garden variety joy present themselves, recognize and relish them for the outsize gift they truly are. (www.courtneybarnett.com.au)

Author rating: 7/10