Courtney Barnett‘s The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas has been arriving in lucky U.S. mailboxes in recent days, but the first stateside release from the languidly observant Australian garage-rock bandleader is officially out today, with a video to mark the occasion.
For those not yet familiar, “Avant Gardener” — this writer’s pick for the No. 1 track of last year — is the unambitiously ambitious breakout song, the everyday-psychedelic first-person narrative with the offhand Pulp Fiction reference and the best asthma-inhaler lyric in at least a few years. “History Eraser” is the unhedonistically hedonistic one, the arty party you could buy on a split seven-inch single, where the Stones give way to the mods and a #YOLO comment nonchalantly leads to touching tongues, which all winds up with a Triffids song.
But The Double EP also has an estimable mellow streak, and “Anonymous Club” captures that wonderfully; its slowcore-glazed tale of an intimate evening with ample wine and no phones would fit perfectly on a mix alongside the music of fellow-Aussie-accented Allo Darlin’. The song’s new video (via the Quietus) delivers patient, monochrome animations — all the better for languid observation, of course.