“Avant Gardener” by Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett (Photo by Lisa Sorgini)

I was minding my own business on the internet this afternoon and I came across this song by Australian Courtney Barnett & I was floored. Momentarily breathless. Kind of. Figuratively speaking. I didn’t actually stop breathing or suffer actual ‘shortness of breath’ or anything. Anyway, here it is:

There’s a Bandcamp link here to the Melbourne label Milk! Records. But I prefer the soundcloud page because of the comments about the lyrics. Which are indeed perfect in a kind of Alan Bennett way. If UK playwright/ writer Alan Bennett wrote songs. Which, to the best of my knowledge he did not.

A song about having a panic attack while gardening has no right to sound this good. The repeated bridge (?) change bit is sublime and adds a bit of icing to the song, as do those lovely weird noises. It’s described as slacker pop or something. I can see that, but this slacker is no slacker when it comes to words. And music.

As with recent albums from fellow Australians Boomgates and Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, there is clearly something in the water in parts of Australia. Just as there appear to be in parts of NZ right now.

I’ve since discovered Pitchfork is onto this. That’s not going to put me off though.