Courtney Barnett/ Tell Me How You Really Feel
There's no doubt that Australia has bestowed upon us many musical greats over the years. Some, like Gotye and Tame Impala, managed to break onto the international scene despite still being an indie act back in their homeland. Today, the rise of indie artists from Down Under still persists and one name you should acquaint yourself with is none other than Courtney Barnett. Hailing from Melbourne, the 30-year-old singer-songwriter went from playing guitar in local bands to headlining major music festivals in just a few years, thanks largely to her excellent debut full-length 2015's Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit.
Following last year's collaborative studio album with American singer-songwriter Kurt Vile, Barnett has finally returned with her second album proper, Tell Me How You Really Feel. Touted as "darker and more melancholy," it does exactly what it says on the tin as Barnett has clearly traded the casual sprightliness of her debut for a little anxiety-induced doom and gloom.
"You know what they say/ No one is born to hate/ We learn it somewhere along the way," she begins on the opener Hopefulessness. Accompanied by mid-tempo bluesy guitar, she proceeds to offer a word of encouragement. "You know it's okay to have a bad day." Guitar distortion then ensues, taking things to the finish line. The introvert anthem City Looks Pretty arrives with a shift in tempo and a driving guitarline. "Sometimes I get sad/ It's not all that bad," she asserts. "Friends treat you like a stranger and/ Strangers treat you like their best friend, oh well"
Recalling early Foo Fighter, Charity offers a tongue-in-cheek Barnettian observation ("Meditation just makes you more strung out/ I wish you had a guru who told you to let it go") whereas Need a Little Time paints an earnest picture of someone ridden with regret ("I take a little time out … I'm sorry that I lost my patience/ You deserve better, it's true").
Elsewhere on the album, we get a constant nostalgic whiff of 90s grunge on tracks like Nameless, Faceless, I'm Not Your Mother, I'm Not Your Bitch and the tellingly titled Crippling Self Doubt and a General Lack of Self-Confidence. The twangy closer Sunday Roast sounds like it could be an outtake from her Kurt Vile-featured joint LP Lotta Sea Lice. "I know you're doing your best/ I think you're doing just fine," she admits before giving in to her go-to nonchalance. "It's all the same to me/ You know it's all the same to me."
If her last record was a carefree reflection of the world around her, Tell Me How You Really Feel finds Barnett looking inside of herself through slightly murky lens. The sense of playfulness is replaced by her inner turmoil, and throughout the album's 10 tracks, we've seen her frustration and anxieties are laid bare through her songwriting and the way the guitar occasionally rages. This is one of this year's most personal albums which should resonate with a lot of people.
THE PLAYLIST
Pyra/ Let It Go
On Let It Go, Pyra is encouraging us to brush aside whatever that gets us down. Besides the positive, self-empowering message, the rising Thai pop songtress is also serving up a sensual blend of R&B and electropop – think a happy hybrid between FKA twigs, Tender, and Grimes. "Long ago I've been in love with toxic people/ At times you gotta learn the hard way/ Otherwise, I am loved by the people that I don't even give a damn," she coos as if she was reading an entry from her diary.
John Mayer/ New Light
Only a few notes in and John Mayer's latest offering New Light is already having us tapping our feet along like a happy child. A follow-up to last year's The Search for Everything, the song features his trademark bluesy guitar, breezy bassline and playful lyrics ("Pushing 40 in the friend zone/ We talk and then you walk away every day"). And as with the majority of his work, there's a solid guitar solo to be had as well as that good old frustration of unreciprocated love: "What do I do with all this?/ What do I do with all this love that's running through my veins for you."
Arctic Monkeys/ Four Out Of Five
Arctic Monkeys have just dropped their new album, Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino, along with its leadoff single, Four Out Of Five. Here, Alex Turner and co have taken a drastic turn from their usual indie rock sound and offered up something a little left-field. Built on unnerving, psychedelic production, the track is essentially a brochure for the fictitious establishment that is the album's title ("Come on in, the water's lovely … Since the exodus, it's all getting gentrified/ I put a taqueria on the roof, it was well reviewed/ Four stars out of five/ And that's unheard of").
Mitski/ Geyser
"You're my number one/ You're the one I want/ And you've turned down/ Every hand that has beckoned me to come," opens Mitski's latest single, Geyser, which arrives in anticipation of her upcoming fifth studio record, Be The Cowboy. Paired with sombre organ notes and a jarring static jab, the track finds the Japanese-American singer-songwriter slowly building the tension before letting it all erupt in an emotionally cathartic final verse: "I will be the one you need/ The way I can't be without you." A solid return and a worthy follow-up to her 2016's critically acclaimed Puberty 2.
Dirty Projectors/ Break-Thru
A stark contrast to the general post-breakup blues of their 2017 self-titled album, Dirty Projectors' latest cut Break-Thru is all tropical sunshine and joyful optimism. "What's up? How's it going?/ The unreal cheekbone/ She is so dreamy/ That she got features on Fellini," vocalist Dave Longstreth chirps atop warped synths and groovy, early Vampire Weekend-esque guitar riffs. "She is an epiphany/ Her electricity opens my days like she always knew/ I feel like affinity, look at me, a deity/ In all the ways, she's a break-thru." The song marks the first taste of their forthcoming LP Lamp Lit Prose, said to feature exciting collaborators including HAIM, Rostam, and Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold.
