Courtney Barnett
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Mom + Pop
Although this beguiling opus is being billed as Australian Courtney Barnett’s debut LP, she previously produced an album’s worth of material in the form of two EPs, a highlight being “Avant Gardener,” her engagingly offhand account of an asthma attack. She follows that tune’s deceptively ingenious template on Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, which blends agreeably slackerish vocals, ramshackle yet catchy guitar pop, and understated songs devoted to capturing the absorbing minutiae of everyday life.
From “Elevator Operator” to “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party” to “An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in NY),” Barnett’s characters turn the act of “just idling insignificantly” into a search for deeper meaning, often seesawing between self-loathing and self-respect. And while epiphanies prove elusive, her good-hearted, empathic portraits are unfailingly memorable.
