Melbourne-based indie singer-songwriter and guitarist Courtney Barnett's latest single "How to Boil an Egg" is not exactly a new song, dating back to a time before she was a Grammy nominee for Best New Artist, a Pitchfork darling, and a stalwart in Australia's indie scene:
"I used to perform this song at all the open-mics when I was 21. It never got recorded, so for personal-posterity I updated it and made this version recently when I was bunkered up in the bush doin some demos for my next album. In tradition of the Milk! Records compilation releases, like “Pickles From the Jar” or “Three Packs A Day,” I wanted to include a song of mine for Split Singles Club that was a tad left of album-centre. It’s a songwriting experiment that doesn’t really belong anywhere else".
The track does not feature any basic cooking instructions, focusing instead on the anxieties of facing up to all of the responsibilities of adulthood: paying the bills, hanging one's laundry, sleeping responsibly, and coping with existential and romantic anxieties:
'Every morning I feel more useless than beforeTrying hard to see the point in anything at allOh, I've been tryingI've been trying really hardYeah, I've been tryingI've been trying really hardPull yourself together, pick myself apartNothing lasts for never, so be still my bleeding heartOh, I've been dreamingDreaming of a brand new startYeah, I've been dreamingDreaming of a brand new start'
Lyrics: Genius
Barnet plays all the instruments on the track herself: a fact that seems to be at odds with her lyrical persona's apparent lack of agency to shape her own life. Swirling guitars, handclaps and twang-y melodies provide a cacophonous momentum that her lyrical persona is trying 'really hard' to muster. The throwback track nevertheless hints at the ironic self-awareness that was lauded in her debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015): 'Oh, you have a great abundance of axes there to grind/ Remember some people have real problems next time you whine'.
