Courtney Barnett – “Boxing Day Blues (Revisited)”

Courtney Barnett – “Boxing Day Blues (Revisited)”

“Boxing Day Blues” is the song that closed out Courtney Barnett’s great Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, a wistful, melodic portrait of a dying relationship. While the rest of the LP sharpened her sound into punchy, hooky rock ‘n’ roll, “Boxing Day Blues” felt as airy and adrift as its subject, like something that could just float away at any moment — which it did, at the end of the song. Now Barnett has provided an epilogue, “Boxing Day Blues (Revisited),” the Jack White-produced a-side to her cover of the Boys Next Door’s “Shivers” for Third Man Records. It’s surprisingly jaunty and upbeat, but the downcast acceptance of the original has curdled into outright anger that occasionally gnaws through the facade of ok-ness: “Why you so calm?/ I wanna shout/ I wanna rip my goddamn throat out.” Listen below.

“Boxing Day Blues (Revisited)” b/w “Shivers” is out now on Third Man Records.

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