Prior to 2018, Singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett excelled in metaphor but never really with speaking plainly about emotion. Her last album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, saw Barnett turn her witty, incisive gaze inward, letting loose righteous and honest anger.
In her newest single, “Everybody Here Hates You,” she shows no signs of losing that momentum. Though the simple album art is reminiscent of the Double EP that catapulted her into the spotlight, the content continues the themes of Tell Me How You Really Feel. The music video invites the viewer quite literally into her head. Barnett bounces around inside a big pink brain as the camera pans.
The video production is low maintenance and without pretension, shot on a dark stage when the camera isn’t in her head, with only Barnett, her guitarist, and her drummer. Barnett’s performance in the video is similarly undemanding. She stands center stage dressed in jeans and a white tee, her long brown hair characteristically shaggy.
Courtney Barnett has never had to try to cultivate her brand. Her deadpan delivery and unassuming, clever honesty in itself have allowed her to carve out a unique space in the indie rock scene.
In “Everybody Here Hates You,” her matter-of-fact presentation of the malicious thoughts that plague us all from time to time takes her sound in a punk-ier direction that’s more raw than her early work, but it’s just as true to her artistry.
You can see Courtney Barnett perform on her upcoming tour that will include 40 locations in North America and Europe.
