Courtney Barnett has released two new songs, ‘Mantis’ and ‘Sugar Plum’, the latest previews of her fourth studio album Creature of Habit, due March 27 via Fiction Records.
If earlier singles ‘Stay in Your Lane’ and ‘Site Unseen (feat. Waxahatchee)’ hinted at a recalibration, these tracks feel like the thesis. ‘Mantis’ stands at the centre of the record, born from a moment Barnett describes as both strange and clarifying. While working in a desert house studio, she noticed a praying mantis perched above a doorway. A quick search suggested symbolism tied to patience and perseverance. The encounter lingered. The chorus followed.
“Praying mantis on my door, looking for meaning or just any sign at all,” she sings, her voice carried by guitars that feel open and immediate. There is brightness here, but also a quiet resolve. Barnett has long excelled at tracing the internal monologue; on ‘Mantis’ she lets it stretch toward something steadier.
‘Sugar Plum’ moves along similar lines. It circles familiar terrain, self doubt and the friction of expectation, before opening into a refrain that leans toward optimism without overstating it. Across both tracks, Barnett sounds alert to uncertainty rather than overwhelmed by it.
Creature of Habit was written amid significant change. Following a move from Australia to Los Angeles and the closure of her label Milk! Records, Barnett found herself confronting questions about direction and identity. Instead of smoothing those edges, she folded them into the work. The result, if these songs are any indication, is a record concerned less with escape and more with learning how to stay present.
Barnett will be embarking on extensive UK and US tours, go HERE for information.
