The Friday song (on a Sunday): ‘Depreston’ by Courtney Barnett

Nobody else can make the drab or the day-to-day so musical, so compositionally strong, so damn entertaining or as clever as Courtney Barnett can. She’s deadpan, witty and astute. Who else has the perspective to write songs called Avant Gardener or Pedestrian at Best – and have hits with them? Her observations of first-world urban life can punch hard, reflected in lyrics like “Her heels are high and her bag is snakeskin / Hair pulled so tight you can see her skeleton”.  

She can be as observant as she is cynical on a line like “Time is money and money is no man’s friend” and as honest as she is direct when she sings “Put me on a pedestal, I’ll only disappoint you / Tell me I’m exceptional, I promise to exploit you”. 

In short, Barnett is an exceptional talent, creating great songs that range in tone from domestic ennui to emotionally wrenching, and everything in between. 

Coffee and a cool tune

I was making coffee at home one morning this week when I felt prompted to revisit Depreston from her first album proper, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. That album title alone conjures up so much. And Depreston, slang for the name of the suburb of Preston in Melbourne, covers profiling, renovations and the cost of housing just that little further afield from the city hub. It also contains the observation that moving away from all the coffee shops may not be such a bad thing and holds a couple of Barnett’s best, “expressionless” lines for me. Funny too: “Now we’ve got that percolator / Never made a latte greater / I’m savin’ 23 dollars a week”. 

I await each Barnett recording with high expectations, which were met again when she released her latest album, A Creature of Habit, a few weeks back. Barnett can bring the mundane to the surface, interrogate underlying emotions and examine life between the cracks, all driven with her characteristic bite and dynamic musical intent.

Depreston starts with an intro of electric guitar setting the rhythm, with Dan Luscombe’s second guitar adding colour. The rhythm section kicks in verse two, kept tight by a simple but true hi-hat. Musically it’s not fussy, with minimal decoration, while Barnett draws attention to the lyric, articulating every word until the treated keyboard solo (again Luscombe?) takes us to the bridge. I love this song and hope you will too. 

Listen to Courtney Barnett’s Depreston on Spotify here and on Apple Music here.

I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.

For more of Mark’s memorable picks, go here.

_{Top image: Currency collage.}