Track #8 of Courtney Barnett’s Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit is the ominously titled ‘Dead Fox.’
Turns out this is a protest song about the ill effects of corporations on her native Australia. Barnett paints a picture of pesticide-injected apples, animals mowed down by freight trucks and cities bypassed by highways. The one-line chorus is a neat play on the sticker you often see on the back of large trucks that reads “if you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you.”
Continuing my discovery of Courtney Barnett’s studio album debut, I arrive at track #6, titled ‘Aqua Profunda!’
These are the most conversational lyrics so far, a little first-person narrative about a woman who tries to catch the eye of somebody swimming alongside her in a public pool, only to pass out while attempting an acrobatic move. I first pictured a man as her object of affection, but I’ve read that Barnett is gay and she could very well be writing here about two women.
Every year or two, the Random iTunes Fairy serves up a cut from Jackson Browne’s 1993 album, I’m Alive.
And every year or two I’m reminded what a beautiful and lasting piece of work it is.
Today’s song is particularly lovely, and further proof (like the whole album) that break-ups make for the some of the most emotionally resonant music.
The Random iTunes Fairy does like to repeat herself on occasion, and this week she’s following up last weekend’s Maroon 5 post with another cut from the band’s debut album, Songs About Jane.
My remarks from last week remain true seven days later… this album represents the best work Maroon 5 has done to date and I wish they’d return to this sound.
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.’
