March 23rd will see the release of the debut LP proper from Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. Recorded in the Autumn of 2014 in an intense 10 day session at Head Gap studios in Melbourne.

Following up from The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas in 2013 (which, as the title suggests, collected her first two self-released EPs to beguiling effect), “Sometimes…” cements Barnett’s standing as one of the most distinctive voices in indie rock, mixing witty, often hilarious observations with devastating self-assessment over a beguiling collection of songs that reveals her as an ambitious songwriter with an ear for clever turns of phrase and an eye for story-song details that are literate without being pretentious. Depressing rentals and dead foxes, go-nowhere relationships and dead end suburbs, even her own fears, doubts and insecurities – nothing escapes Barnett’s caustic sense of humour.

So on furious first single, “Pedestrian At Best”, Barnett turns the microscope’s glare on herself, as she lets loose an internal monologue crammed with twisting rhymes, inside jokes and self-deprecation while she muses on the fleeting nature of fame and what may or may not come after (“I must confess I’ve made a mess of what should be a small success, but I digress. At least I tried my very best… I guess”). “Pedestrian…” also comes accompanied by a brilliant video by Charlie Ford, conceptualised by Barnett herself, in which she plays a depressed and incompetent clown, wandering around a carnival on her own.

TRACKLISTING

• Elevator Operator
• Pedestrian At Best
• An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in New York)
• Small Poppies
• Depreston
• Aqua Profunda!
• Dead Fox
• Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party
• Debbie Downer
• Kim’s Caravan
• Boxing Day Blues

UPCOMING LIVE DATES (Tickets on sale February 5th)

March
23/03 – Album Launch Gallery Show London
25/03 – Paris, The Divan Du Monde
27/03 – Brighton, Concorde 2
28/03 – Bristol, The Fleece
29/03 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
30/03 – Sheffield, Leadmill
31/03 – Newcastle, Newcastle University

April
02/04 – Glasgow, Art School
03/04 – Manchester, Gorilla
04/04 – Dublin, Whelans
05/04 – Nottingham, Bodega
07/04 – Cambridge, Junction 2
08/04 – Norwich, Waterfront
09/04 – London, Electric Ballroom
12/04 – Berlin, Heimathefen