How Courtney Barnett made her new album by retreating to the desert: It nearly drove me mad'

"It felt like the end of a chapter, and then the next chapter kind of began without me totally realising. That disorientation is the engine behind her new album, Creature of Habit. It opens with the synthy thrum of Stay in Your Lane, a track that addresses the friction of this transition with a characteristically blunt self-assessment: Feels like I'm going backwards / Each day I preach my practice / And still it seems I wasn't ready for this."

"If her 2021 record, Things Take Time, Take Time, was the sound of a woman sequestered by protracted, emotionally exhausting lockdowns (It's timid and doesn't want to upset the neighbours, she says), then Creature of Habit is the sound of the door being kicked off its hinges. The music is confident and cheeky even if it's lyrically self-effacing."

"Sometimes on those huge, huge stages, you're just like, Is anybody out there?' In those small shows, it's like you could reach out and touch someone. I could accidentally hit someone with my guitar when I'm spinning around. It felt like this strange, beautiful sign from the universe."

Courtney Barnett experienced significant life changes in early 2024 while transitioning to Los Angeles and closing Milk! Records, her independent label founded over a decade prior. This period of limbo and uncertainty directly influenced her fourth album, Creature of Habit. The record opens with Stay in Your Lane, addressing her transition with self-reflective lyrics about feeling unprepared for change. Unlike her 2021 album Things Take Time, Take Time, which reflected lockdown isolation and restraint, Creature of Habit presents confident, energetic music with cheeky undertones despite self-effacing lyrics. Barnett tested new material through intimate live performances in Hobart, New York City, and Melbourne, finding the small venues more connected and meaningful than large stadium stages.

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