• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Sep 19, 2023 Web Exclusive By Matt the Raven

If you’re here expecting a new Courtney Barnett album filled with her signature gritty guitar hooks, satirical wit, and wry delivery you’re in the wrong place. What we have here instead is a courageous tangent for Barnett: a score of 17 instrumentals composed for the documentary film Anonymous Club.

The film itself chronicles Barnett’s world tour for her album Tell Me How You Really Feel so it’s not that far-fetched for her to be doing the score. But while the film provides a special look into the ups and downs of touring as well as insight into Barnett’s creative process, the score offers a musical counterbalance to her usual jangly and punchy indie rock.

Most tracks are languid and meditative pieces, but the use of atmospheric treatments make these sparse arrangements sound full as the ambient soundscapes are often infused with layered, harmonious textures. But as film scores are wont to do, the tone of the tracks ebb and flow to fit the film’s narrative in an attempt to elicit a wide range of feelings spanning the breadth of human emotions, albeit more melancholic than vibrant.

Plucking some personal emotional strings and cultivated from the spectrum of human emotions, End of the Day is a mix of poignant and moving instrumental tracks that make a fine film score and can stand-alone as a demonstrative instrumental album. (www.courtneybarnett.com.au)

Author rating: 6.5/10