Courtney Barnett returned earlier this year with her debut album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, following up on her 2014 double EP, A Sea Of Split Peas, with even more potential. The latest single to spin out of the record is Nobody Really Cares If You Go To The Party and it’s another lo-fi gem from the Aussie with cranked guitars, slacker-jacker vocals and alt-rock genius.
The fact that the album was released in March, but it’s still managing to kick out the singles and pick up a lot of air time is a pretty big credit to Courtney and band. The rest of the record is well worth a listen to as well, if you haven’t already, and with a UK tour set to run through November and early December 2015 it’s good timing to get into the witty, ramble of Barnett’s latest material.
The track itself is garage rock simplicity with great sounding guitar combinations that delivers a fuzzy, distortion-fuelled riff over a clanging electric rhythm. It’s all wrapped up with Courtney’s trademark, laid-back vocals, which meander around the subject of the pros and cons of going to a party. On the surface it’s a decision we’ve all probably faced with the prospect of a party looming on the one hand, but the brilliant call of staying in on the other side of the equation. In fact, as we write we’ve got the very same problem. However, at a deeper level it talks about the ins and outs of embracing the preponderance for inane human interaction or closing the world out and focusing on doing something a bit more meaningful instead.
The freak out electric guitar solo is pretty wild, giving us just a little sample of the harder side of her music. Nobody Cares If You Go To The Party is a no frills single that’s happily entrenched in its garage band cape and it fits in well with a playlist of Pavement, Eels and even Nirvana.
The video is as lo-fi as the song, featuring what looks like an impromptu gig in Camden with a gathering of incredibly appreciative fans. It’s a bit like a home-made homage to something in between Last Night by The Strokes and The Beatles’ final rooftop concert, bringing it all together outside Camden Town Tube stop.
Having seen a Courtney Barnett gig recently, we can safely say that the song sounds even better smashed out live in and among the rest of the songs from the album, with a few of her earlier tracks from A Sea Of Split Peas thrown in for good measure. She was one of our highlights from Green Man Festival 2015, so if you’re thinking of catching one of the gigs you should expect a full force delivery that’ll probably surprise you.
As for Nobody Cares If You Go To The Party, it’s definitely a contender for a new addition to your music library, but then you could say the same for the majority of Courtney Barnett’s musical output.
Courtney Barnett, Nobody Cares If You Go To The Party review: 4/5
