Courtney Barnett has always written like someone thinking in real time, circling a feeling until it settles or fractures. On “One Thing at a Time,” that process feels more exposed than usual, the tension between frustration and release playing out in full view rather than tucked into the margins.
The track, taken from her upcoming fourth album Creature of Habit, moves with a steady insistence before opening into something more expansive. Built around a stomping rhythm section, with Flea’s bass anchoring the track, it holds a sense of pressure that doesn’t quite resolve until its final moments.
That sense of in-between runs through the album itself. Written during a period of upheaval, relocation, the closure of Milk! Records, and a broader questioning of direction, Creature of Habit frames uncertainty as something to work through rather than escape. The songs don’t attempt to tidy up those contradictions. Instead, they sit inside them, letting the friction remain audible.
Previous singles have hinted at that shift, but “One Thing at a Time” feels like the clearest articulation so far. Not a departure, but a recalibration, where Barnett’s instinct for detail is still intact, but the stakes feel more immediate.
If earlier records traced the outlines of everyday life, Creature of Habit seems more concerned with what happens when those outlines begin to blur.
