Rock Review – Courtney Barnett’s “Tell Me How You Really Feel”
You think the reckless abandon of true rock and roll is dead, and to soak up whatever last dying vestiges are left you have to embed yourself within the fandom of Imagine Dragons, or pay $350 to see legacy acts in their 70’s from the nosebleeds? Well then you need to buy into the hype behind Courtney Barnett, and get yourself a big healthy snoot full of this greasy-haired Australian that’s slinging loud guitar like a boss and writing songs like the second coming of Patti Smith.
It’s not just country music that’s under assault. Any actual human playing an actual instrument is an endangered species these days, and that’s one reason a rocking singer/songwriter like Courtney Barnett finds herself rubbing elbows with the “Americana” crowd and being booked at the Newport Folk Festival as anyone looking for integrity and soul in music congregates around anyone who exudes it. Courtney Barnett certainly does, and though the sound is rock, the potency of the songwriting is universal in both it’s appeal and influence.
Don’t misunderstand, there are plenty of fuzzy “psych” rockers out there refusing to brush their hair and posting pictures on Instagram of their trashed apartments in order to sell you on the idea they live a poetic, disheveled lifestyle like their overdosed heroes. But it’s often more aesthetic than substance. They don’t have the acumen to articulate the feelings when the little gremlins of self-doubt turn into beasts of self-righteousness, only to ultimately whither into regret and loathing, and bleed out the words of songs.
Nor do they have the dedication to see the music through to the end. In the uphill climb of organic music, it takes the full package to get songs from the page to the stage. Yeah everybody likes to talk about the new Kurt Cobain of this, or the new Kurt Cobain of that, but Courtney Barnett would actually make an applicable candidate for such a thing if it still wasn’t incredibly inappropriate to compare two artists who lived 25 years apart.
Completely independent, Courtney started her own record label in Melbourne called Milk Records to release an EP in 2012, and the label has since become its own thriving business. But her fierce independent streak didn’t result in her full-length debut getting overlooked by the powers that be as per usual. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit hit #1 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart, she earned a performance slot on SNL, and Barnett was even nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards in 2016. Beyond the music, Courtney Barnett might be one of the biggest success stories of truly independent music we’ve seen in recent memory.
After collaborating with indie rocker Kurt Vile on a record last year, Courtney is back with Tell Me How You Really Feel, once again completely written and mostly produced by herself with a stripped down band helping her press songs out loud and ugly and unapologetic. Kim and Kelley Deal also lent some guitar and vox on a couple of songs, which only feels right, like the mothers of alt. rock signing off on a new generation of badass women. It’s probably not far off to say that vintage Pixies played a big part in inferring Courtney’s sound.
Just like her business, her writing, and everything else, Barnett handles many of her own guitar parts. Though there are many moments of Tell Me How You Really Feel where discordant tones and dark moods set the table like in the opening song “Hopefulessness,” Courtney can also be quite the crafter of easily-appealing melody, like it the album’s standout tracks, “Charity,” “Need A Little Time,” and “Crippling Self Doubt…”
But it’s the words, the capturing of unsettled moods in music, and putting rhyme to the little maniacal thoughts we all suffer from that makes Courtney Barnett’s music so unique, timeless, and infectious. We all need those moments when nobody’s looking to blare music too loud and use it like a steam valve for all of our frustrations and fears. Tell Me How You Really Feel delivers that experience.
7.5/10
– – – – – – – – – –
May 23, 2018 @ 9:37 am
Great review, Trig!
May 23, 2018 @ 10:06 am
I can’t think of anytime where Courtney Barnett has swung and missed. Her own stuff is so smart. Loved her collaboration with Kurt Vile. Even her cover of the Dead’s “New Speedway Boogie” is on the money. Great write up and it should be an inspiration for those considering the DIY path.
May 23, 2018 @ 10:20 am
Aw, I like her. 🙂 From what I’ve heard from the album so far, I’ve especially enjoyed “Nameless, Faceless,” “City Looks Pretty” and “Sunday Roast.”
May 23, 2018 @ 10:37 am
Can you also make an article for underrated pop artists that are more into substance than annoying hooks and aesthetic? Because this site doesnt wanna seem to only save country music anymore, but music as a whole. And that’s awesome of you mr. Trig. Well appreciated 😀
May 23, 2018 @ 1:17 pm
Asien Country pop? Ha ha I hope you don’t men this 🙂 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lNgPA2ibcI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_fDtBTOkug
May 23, 2018 @ 4:34 pm
Oh, i’ve got you on this.
MUNA – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t5gGm3NWU4
Maggie Rogers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgWC5oEuyjU
If you like these, let me know and i’ll give you a lot more.
May 23, 2018 @ 12:35 pm
I’m kinda surprised that you have never reviewed any of Kurt Vile’s albums, particularly his most recent one, “B’lieve I’m Goin Down…” which besides being absolutely subliminal kinda fits in with a country-esque style of indie rock. There’s still some great guitar-based rock music out there, however. Steve Gunn, Hiss Golden Messenger, Heartless Bastards, Horse Feathers miight not have any twang or fiddles but they fit in a country framework better than a lot of the garbage that’s out there these days.
May 23, 2018 @ 1:25 pm
I like to review some non country records every once in a while to keep things interesting and remind us it’s okay to like music other than country and roots. But I also don’t want to swerve too far out of my lane. I never would want to review a rock record at the expense of a country one. One of the reasons I wanted to feature Courtney Barnett here is because I think she makes an excellent model of how you can be completely independent but still be wildly successful and true to yourself. I would love to see a country artist that does everything themselves find this kind of success. Also since she’s headlining Newport Folk right beside Sturgill, Isbell, Margo Price, etc., I felt it was important to give people a window into her music.
May 23, 2018 @ 3:31 pm
I’ve noticed a calculated and concerted effort on Kurt Vile’s part recently to try to start ingratiating himself to a country audience – I assume because that’s what you do when you start getting older and your once younger fan base stops caring. Seriously go back and listen to anything of his you were once told by Pitchfork was good – maybe some cool production for the time but the songs haven’t exactly held up. Why are these types allowed to switch teams as soon as the whim strikes them but we give country artists a hard time if they even dip their toe in the pop world?
May 23, 2018 @ 7:18 pm
I have a different take on Kurt Vile. I love his last 3 solo albums as much as any of my favorite albums. But his early albums – Constant Hit Maker and what not were kind of awful and juvenile. I’m guessing that someone along the way – a producer maybe? – told him that he was actually a good song writer and to cut the Ariel Pink bullshit and make some good albums. I can’t speak for anyone else but his last 3 are all among my favorites ever. The other issue is more complex – country (real country) is seen as a novelty so it’s hip to make a “throwback” album. But going country to indie rock or pop you’re seen as selling out because you’re viewed as trying to break into a genre that you weren’t hip enough to belong to in the first place. And to the country world you’re just selling out. If Colter Wall made a jazz album he’d seem hip (or bizarre or both) but if he made a rap album he’d seem like a douche.
May 23, 2018 @ 12:53 pm
Thank you Trigger I never thought I’d hear a review of her here. I’ve even been thinking of writing a e-mail and ask if you could do that. But I skipped because I know how busy you are.
May 23, 2018 @ 1:12 pm
Fun song.
May 23, 2018 @ 2:03 pm
I’m not sure what’s more out of tune, her guitar or voice.
May 23, 2018 @ 9:18 pm
She’s purposely hitting sour notes in the performance above. It’s not like that on the record. Unfortunately my options for embeddable songs from this album were limited. She sings well, though the vocals are often “emotionless” like a lot of indie rock these days.
May 23, 2018 @ 9:36 pm
Ok, will check her studio stuff out and give her another try.
As I believe that’s the whole point of your article.
May 24, 2018 @ 9:58 am
I don’t know about this album yet, but her other one, Sit and Think, is pretty damn awesome. I would suggest giving it a listen as well.
May 23, 2018 @ 3:30 pm
Please no. Was this a paid piece proposed by a publicist or NFF? There are sooooo many country artists that you could have given this space to. These acts were hyped enough. Let Pitchfork, Stereogum, et al keep doing that dirty work. I come to this site for a respite from the too-cool-for-school BS of the indie rock world. A place where I don’t have to worry about hearing another overhyped boring modern-day “rocker” rehash the 90s and try soooo hard to sound like they don’t care about the mundane lyrics they’re singing. “But she plays guitar!!!!” Yay.
May 23, 2018 @ 4:35 pm
u mad
May 23, 2018 @ 4:39 pm
I’ll write about what ever the fuck I want to write about. I saw Courtney Barnett at a roots festival called Pickathon in 2014. She’s headlining the Newport Folk Festival this summer with many of the artists regularly covered on Saving Country Music. She arguably is the most successful, truly independent artist out there right now presenting a template how artists can make music, keep control of it, and make a business out of it for themselves. If anything, I’m embarrassed it’s taken me this long to feature her. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. No country artists was pushed aside so I could feature Courtney Barnett.
May 23, 2018 @ 3:34 pm
I couldn’t really make out the lyrics, so I can’t comment on their quality. Musically, I don’t really hear anything different from any of the five original bands I would normally see at the Brighton Bar on a Friday night. Nice hipster left handed guitar.
May 25, 2018 @ 7:07 pm
She’s left handed dude.
May 23, 2018 @ 4:30 pm
what clyde said .
this is boring , horrible vocals,.out of tune and passionless …un-listenable…and why would you want to with about a gazillion better options out there ..?
I’ve heard this kinda careless nondescript trash at jams all my life . not a chance I’d pay money to see it OR hear it .
”’sorry Courtney ..only the best tuna …..”
May 23, 2018 @ 4:42 pm
I don’t personally like her stuff. It’s too talky and not enough melody and singing. To be fair, though, this is the most singing i’ve heard her done before. Still, just not for me, i don’t think.
If you want new good rock bands try The Sidekicks, Tenement, Joyce Manor or Culture Abuse.
May 23, 2018 @ 5:56 pm
Swing and a miss with the listeners round these parts Trig.
Oh well.
I have been following her since her first release.
She continues to floor me with everything she puts out.
Megatalent.
May 23, 2018 @ 8:21 pm
Bob Dylan sucks because he can’t sing, so does Nick Cave. The Sex Pistols can’t play their instruments. Ah bloo bloo bloo.
This idea that someone shouldn’t be taken seriously because they’re not the strongest singer or some sort of savant at playing a guitar or whatever else is ludicrous and excludes a ton of amazing art on a pointless and arbitrary point of subjective “worth”.
If it resonates with you that’s great and should be celebrated, I personally don’t really care for her and find her largely unremarkable, but who am I to tell other people they’re wrong for liking her or finding some emotional connection to the music?
A friend of mine (and guitarist) actually worked at a cafe with her many moons ago and arranged to meet up and play some music together, but after the first session nothing really seemed to click and they didn’t do it again. Thems the breaks I guess.
May 24, 2018 @ 5:27 am
Yep. I completely agree. And that attitude is not uncommon amongst some “country fan only” fans around here. If the execution is not up to technical standards, the baby is thrown out with the bathwater. And that test even applies to some country legends as they have gotten older.
I find Courtney Barnett to be refreshing, especially compared to some of the stuff I here on the local alternative rock station, as I periodically check out what they’re playing. But she doesn’t do quite enough for me to buy her albums. For pure rock and roll these days, Chuck Prophet is probably my main man. And man, does he put on a great rock and roll show. Alejandro Escovedo, Los Lobos and Robyn Hitchcock are still kicking it, too. It is good to see a young rocker like Courtney Barnett whose heart seems to be in the right place, though.
May 23, 2018 @ 10:50 pm
Good to see this review. I started as a rocker in the ’70s but hardly listen to any new stuff now. It all seems to be middle class students trying to sound like it’s still the ’80s. Country is where the songs and the guitars are now. Courtney stands out like a beacon as an exception to this, cool songs just telling it like it is with perception and feeling. And guitars!
May 23, 2018 @ 11:05 pm
Did you go see the show at Mohawk? Ripped it up. I like the Cobain reference, I thought the same thing watching her on stage at that show.
May 24, 2018 @ 1:09 am
Saw her on the Tonight show a couple of years ago, and loved her ever since. She has an amazing voice.
May 24, 2018 @ 5:56 am
thanks for posting this – i’d seen some mention of her in some other places and was interested, thanks for pushing me over the edge
May 24, 2018 @ 12:48 pm
Interesting…
Add it to the list!
May 25, 2018 @ 5:41 am
“Notice- We are now changing out site name to ‘Saving Organic Music’”!
Not bad. I think there are a lot of us who appreciate truly good and original music, whether it is country, Americana, alternative, or rock.
May 25, 2018 @ 1:55 pm
Thanks, Trigger for this review. I know coming here (of course) I’ll find Country mainly on this site but as someone who grew up with only Rock music, I appreciate anyone putting out that type sound today. I started to enjoy a lot of different music and made the way to Country for reasons others have given here–the lyrics, instruments, esp guitar sound. I also appreciate how ‘normal’ country artists seem to be. When “Rock Music” started to change I could do what others did and complain about it reg. while (only) listening to Classic Rock for years. Or actually see all the decent music there is in other genres, and be glad when someone authentic comes around today with a Rock sound. It is like revisiting an old friend now when I listen to groups like The Who, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Rush. I wont stay there though; keep old friends but make new ones.