June 11, 2018

Courtney Barnett’s Second Album Is Edgy and Excellent

Each song on “Tell Me How You Really Feel” is like a heartfelt message from a pal.

Album Review

Courtney Barnett
Tell Me How You Really Feel
Mom + Pop

Thanks to engaging songs like “Avant Gardener” and the charming debut album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett has become a star. But success has also brought long stretches away from home on tour, the increased attention of haters, and a heightened sense of social ills. If the excellent sophomore effort, Tell Me How You Really Feel, sometimes finds Barnett in a darker frame of mind, her unfussy guitar pop has retained its unassuming shimmer, albeit with a rougher, even angry, edge: “I’m Not Your Mother, I’m Not Your Bitch” shows she’s capable of losing her patience. Her knack for memorable vignettes undiminished, Barnett addresses relationship stress (“Charity”), rebuffs skeptics (“Nameless, Faceless”), and offers nonjudgmental comfort (“Sunday Roast”). Best of all, she’s still a wonderfully offhand singer who makes every line feel like a heartfelt message from a pal, one with the same doubts and insecurities as us ordinary folks.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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