Courtney Barnett – “Small Talk”

Tajette O'Halloran

Courtney Barnett – “Small Talk”

Tajette O'Halloran

The great Australian rocker Courntey Barnett has a laid-back, slapdash way of writing songs, but she doesn’t really make throwaways. Anytime she comes out with something new, it’s worth at least a few listens. Earlier this year, Barnett came out with a very good new album called Tell Me How You Really Feel. And today, we get to hear an unreleased song from the sessions that produced those albums. It’s about as good as anything that was on the final product.

“Small Talk” is a fun five-and-a-half-minute sprawl of a song, one that starts out with Barnett making idle conversation with an imaginary acquaintance and ends with a tremendously satisfying organ-and-guitar jam. The song sounds at least partially improvised, and it definitely sounds like the product of a band’s members all playing in a room together. The lyrics are the kinds of things that Barnett might’ve jotted down an hour before tape rolled: “Ii got a brother, Blake. He’s four years older than me, and I guess he always will be. Yeah, he’s clever, and he’s got a cool girlfriend.”

The song will appear on the new compilation 10 Years Of Mom + Pop. But you can just click below to hear the song right now.

The 10 Years Of Mom + Pop compilation is out 11/23 on Mom + Pop.

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