With the release of 2012’s I’ve Got a Friend Called Emily Farris EP and 2013’s How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose, the Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Courtney Barnett quickly received critical acclaim from outlets across North America, the UK and Australia for work that featured witty and rambling conversational lyrics, often delivered with an ironic deadpan paired with enormous power chord-driven arrangements. And although her success may have seemed like it came about overnight, it wasn’t; Barnett carved out a long-held reputation for being one of Melbourne’s best guitarists: she had a stint in Dandy Warhols’ Brent DeBoer’s side project Immigrant Union and guested on Jen Cloher‘s third album, In Blood Memory.
Barnett’s full-length debut, 2016’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit featured “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party” and the T. Rex-like “Elevator Operator was released to critical acclaimed across the world. Back in 2017, Barnett collaborated with Kurt Vile on the highly acclaimed and commercially successful album Lotta Sea Lice, which landed at #5 on the Aussie charts, #11 on the British charts and #51 on the Stateside charts. The Aussie singer/songwriter and guitarist continued an enviable run of critical and commercial success with her third album, 2018’s Tell Me How You Really Feel, which featured the motork groove-driven “City Looks Pretty.” Barnett supported the album with a three month world tour that included some of her biggest Aussie tour stops.
The acclaimed Aussie artist’s highly-anticipated third album, the Stella Mozgawa-co-produced Things Take Time, Take Time is slated for a November 12, 2021 release through Mom + Pop Music and Marathon Artists. Centered around intimately detailed songwriting, Things Take Time, Take Time reportedly finds the acclaimed Aussie artist pulling the curtain back to reveal an optimistic and serene side. “Sometimes I try to say everything in one song, or put my whole belief system into a vox pop, but you just can’t do that — it’s impossible,” Barnett says in press notes. The album represents the realization that ideology is represented through the way you treat others, not what you say in a song — that some things are more felt than said. And yet, the album is full of the strangeness, busyness and undeniable warmth of life.
Things Take Time, Take Time‘s latest single, the lovely “Before You Gotta Go” features a sparse and atmospheric arrangement that begins with a warm drone, before gently adding layers of twangy guitar, Barnett’s tender vocals, synths, drums and percussion in a slow-burning crescendo. But at its core the song is a deceptively complex song that’s both a frustrated kiss-off and a gracious and thoughtful love song centered around a bittersweet yet very real sentiment: that if something bad were to happen that the last words between you and your lover not be unkind.
Barnett will tour North America between November and February 2022 and has just added additional shows in New Haven and Milwaukee. Tickets to those shows are on sale on Thursday, August 12. The tour includes a February 5, 2022 stop at Radio City Music Hall with Julia Jacklin. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
All tickets can be purchased here.
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
Sat September 25 – Marfa, TX at Trans-Pecos Festival (solo)
Mon November 29 – Las Vegas, NA @ Brooklyn Bowl with Bedouine
Tues December 1 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory with Bedouine
Thurs December 2 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Depot with Bedouine
Sat December 4 – Phoenix, AZ @ Van Buren with Bartees Strange
Sun December 5 – San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park with Bartees Strange
Thu, December 9 – Los Angeles, CA – The Theater at Ace Hotel with Warpaint
Fri December 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Ace with Bartees Strange
Sun December 12 – Oakland, CA @ The Fox with Bartees Strange
Tues December 14 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount with Bartees Strange
Wed December 15 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore
Sat January 22 – Minneapolis, MN @ Palace Theatre with Julia Jacklin
Sun January 23 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre with Julia Jacklin
Thurs January 22 – Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater with Julia Jacklin
Tues January 25 – Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple Theatre with Julia Jacklin
Wed January 26 – Columbus, OH @ Express Live with Julia Jacklin
Fri January 28 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman with Julia Jacklin
Sat January 29 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern with Julia Jacklin
Mon January 31 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel with Shamir
Wed February 2 – Washington DC @ 9:30 Club with Shamir
Thurs February 3 – Washington DC @ 9:30 Club with Shamir
Fri February 4 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met with Julia Jacklin
Sat February 5 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall with Julia Jacklin
Mon February 7 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall with Julia Jacklin
Tues February 8 – Boston, MA @ Wang Theatre with Shamir
Thurs February 10 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground with Shamir
Fri February 11 – Montreal, QC @ Mtelus with Shamir
Sat February 12 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall with Shamir
