Beer and Pavement

Courtney Barnett is singing to me. Well, she always has.

I don’t mean this in a creepy way. She just speaks to me, or at least her brand of songwriting does. And that’s never been truer than on her latest release, Things Take Time, Take Time.

From the opening drum machine tinny beats, I’m eased into Barnett’s drowsy depressive state down under. I’ve been listening to “Rae Street” for months, actually. It’s just that I finally heard it this morning when I went for a “run” for the first time in a long time, long time.

It seems Barnett was as depressed as the rest of us the last two years or whatever it’s been since COVID 19 ruined everything. Every track speaks to me, urging me to ease back into life. Cheering me on to not give up and maybe give this world another chance.

TBF, I’ve been getting back into the real world again. Slowly. But these things take time, at least that’s what Courtney says.

I started this pandemic off running daily. I hadn’t run in forever and suddenly I was running every day. I lost a bunch of weight in a short time until the rest of the world had to start up. Sort of.

Work wanted more of my time and the running suffered. My drinking didn’t. My sitting on my ass didn’t suffer. My aging body didn’t stop aging, deteriorating. And it wasn’t like my mood was going to just flip. These things still take time, but how much time?

Anyway, Courtney Barnett’s new record is out. I don’t have the physical vinyl copy just yet, but it’s streaming on my phone right now. She figured out how to make the drum machine work and it somehow added to her sparse and basic arrangements without losing the stoned nonchalance they always held. And somehow, I think the drumming (the real drumming) sound better on this record.

It’s a good record and, like I said, it speaks to me. I’ll hobble out the door tomorrow just after 5 am tomorrow morning with Things Take Time… playing in my ear. I’ll struggle through the first few tracks until the up tempo of “Before You Gotta Go” and “Turning Green” move my feet a bit faster. Well, I mean, I’ll run faster until my upper leg starts hurting again. Then I’ll wish I hadn’t given up on running back at the beginning of the pandemic.

The rest of the album is pretty rad as well. It tells me what I’m feeling and I’ll go on feeling it. I’m okay with that, mostly because songwriters like Courtney Barnett feel the same things, telling me I’m not alone in this. Eventually, I’ll come out of this. Eventually, I won’t hurt so much when I run. Eventually, well, you know… Things take time, or so I’m told.