Courtney Barnett – The
Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas
Marathon Artists, 2014
My favorite albums of the year always seem to be the ones
that I listen to like a regular human being. The great records strip away the
part of my brain that goes “I HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW” and I just
enjoy the music. Like a regular person without this sick, sick compulsion. It’s
Year End List season now, and whilst getting my affairs in order I totally
forgot the period this summer where I was constantly jamming this record when I
was cooking dinner. It’s such a pure, perfect record it didn’t cross my mind
that I should immediately go and write down my favorite lines from “Avant
Gardener" ("The paramedic thinks I'm clever cos I play guitar/ I think she's clever cos she stops people dying" and "Oh no, next thing I know/ They call up triple O/ I'd rather die than owe the hospital" are both winners). That’s a track that’s going to crack my Top 5 in my Songs of the
Year post and I just now added it to the fold. Realizing I’d left it out and
rediscovering how great and fresh and clever that track is was like listening
to it for the first time. The sickly guitars drowing in an ocean of reverb, the
half-spoken, slightly stoned sounding vocals, and an Indian Ocean’s worth of
charm from the Australian singer-songwriter. So much charm and wit and sneaky
pop bliss. Honestly, this slacker rock stuff is wonderful, but the attitude of it all, is what makes this
one an instant classic. The amount of fucks given, I mean, it’s pry hovering
around the ZERO mark. Just such an easy, fun, unselfconscious record that
captures that rare vibe of sounding instantly familiar and totally fresh and
interesting at the same time.
"Avant Gardener"
"History Eraser"
And as if I needed more selling, here's Barnett covering the Lemonheads, which adds even more instant respect on top of what she's already earned with her original songs.
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