Today I’m wrapping up the first week of what I think has been a successful new feature on the blog — exploring a brand-new album for the first time through Song of the Day entries.
The album in question is Courtney Barnett’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit, and its first four songs have all been good to great. Let’s see if she can close out the week on a high note, with track #5, titled ‘Depreston.’
My first listen to Courtney Barnett’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit has been rewarding so far. And now we arrive at a 7-minute track called ‘Small Poppies.’
Few songs are worthy of a 7-minute running time. Even ‘Hey Jude’ is about three minutes too long. And ironically, this seems to be the least wordy track on the album so far. Will Barnett earn those minutes with this track? Let’s find out…
The first two songs of Courtney Barnett’s new album are very similar. Fast, streamlined, heavy on bass and drums, lots of lyrics more spoken than sung. Approaching Song Three, I wonder if we’ll get more of the same or if we’re in for a stylistic shift.
I’ve heard great albums that hit basically the same note throughout, and great albums that land all over the place. I don’t even have a preference for one over the other. But it’s always interesting to find out which kind of album a new one is.
Continuing my in-blog discovery of Courtney Barnett’s debut studio album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit, we arrive at track #2, ‘Pedestrian at Best.’
I was unsure about this song during the first verse but it won me over halfway through the second. It’s similar to yesterday’s track in its sound and approach, and again I get an Elvis Costello vibe. I think it’s the intellectual word salad mixed with the punk-lite music.
Over the years I’ve chronicled a couple of albums in full (Frank Sinatra’s Watertown and Ben Folds Five’s self-titled debut), both records I adore and know by heart.
Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to try something different (and potentially dangerous). I’m going to post a new album, song by song, experiencing it for the first time as I write about it. If it turns out to be a turkey, we could all be in for a dreary 11 days. But I’m optimistic that it will go better than that.
