A breakup, a pandemic and a homecoming left the
Singer with time to sit and think. Her new album radiates the calmness and kindness she sought
![Courtney Barnett on being forced to stop: ‘I felt myself opening up in a different way’](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d412f4e8dbe6947266070e335377235a5e253c92/0_364_7981_4789/master/7981.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=f441379168bf7212d92269a3b95ecae0)
At the beginning of 2020, while her home country burned and the rest of the world was waking up to a global pandemic, Courtney Barnett was in
Los Angeles. She’d just completed an
American tour; her plan was to find herself an apartment and stick around a little longer to work on songs.
Then – after “it all got really wild” – she came home to Melbourne. For maybe the first time in six years – since her 2016 hit Avant Gardener turned her into the newest “New Dylan” – Barnett finally had time to sit and think.