Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett's Musical Epiphany: A Praying Mantis and Memory Riddles

Courtney Barnett's fourth album "Creature of Habit" emerges on March 27, shaped by an unexpected encounter with a praying mantis. This insect becomes a thematic motif, symbolizing the tentative embrace of new personal routines.

The cover art, featuring the mantis, echoes the idea of making gentle changes. Barnett imbues her songwriting with mnemonic techniques, penning riddles and poems to aid her memory. Additionally, Oliver Sacks' works inspire her exploration of face recognition challenges, while dream journaling informs her understanding of subconscious anxieties.

Courtney Barnett trades record labels and zip codes for hesitant harmonies on new LP

Four years after her last studio outing, Courtney Barnett resurfaces with 'Creature Of Habit,' an album shaped by geographic relocation, label dissolution, and hesitant transformation. Out March 27, it features the wistfully circuitous single 'Site Unseen.'

The track — an indie lull with lyrical resignation — finds Barnett and Waxahatchee exchanging harmonies over lines like “Let’s figure out the rest another day,” after three failed attempts and a final successful one, with Katie Crutchfield’s voice as the missing piece.