‘Stay In Your Lane’: Courtney Barnett is back with a fuzz-drenched bang
There comes a point in an artist’s career when they are afforded the privilege of disappearing entirely off the face of the musical earth without any detriment to their cultural profile. With three studio albums and a film score to her name, Courtney Barnett is definitely existing in that territory.
Four long years have passed since her last studio album, Things Take Time, Take Time, and now, in 2025, with a world more fractured than ever, her observational musings have never been more needed. But rather than reunite us with the ferocious yet innocent angular music of time passed, she’s come back swinging to the soundtrack of ‘Stay In Your Line’, which, in its profile, is entirely more menacing. This, by all accounts, is a new chapter in Barnett’s career.
The menace manifests itself largely in the rhythm section. A somewhat chirpy yet unrelenting drum beat welcomes Barnett back into the fold, before a guitar riff drenched in distortion steals the show. Sure, being the masterful guitar player Barnett is, it’s not entirely unfamiliar to see her playing with power, but this new pedal setup makes everything just that bit meatier. It’s a riff you can almost physically touch, such is its volume, and it provides an important anchor to the remaining elements of the song.
Because while Barnett introduces her signature vocal style to the song, it feels somewhat light in comparison to the riff. But the sentiment it delivers is anything but. “I know you’re trying to help me,” she repeatedly sings in that opening verse, teasing at a sense of liberated anger that is soon coming. But rather than match the outward aggression of the song, Barnett turns it inward.
“Feels like I’m going backwards / Each day I preach my practice” she sings before dropping into chorus which leaves her chanting, “Rip this thing out of my head (Please be patient) / Clip my wings I do my best (Please be patiеnt) / Gotta get this off my chest (Pleasе be patient) / This never would’ve happened if I”.
We never do know what it was that happened, and all of that adds to the sense of mania that exists in the underbelly of the track. There’s a quiet confusion that laces Barnett’s vocal performance, which is buoyed by the chugging makeup of the song’s instrumentation. It keeps her going, one foot after the other and hints towards a quiet optimism that exists in her continued approach to making brilliant and innovative music.
It is a track steeped in curiosity, but not to the detriment of the overall performance. The new fuzz-laden guitar lines and snarling rhythm sections are wildly exciting when paired with the long-awaited return of Barnett. The wait was certainly worth it, and ‘Stay In Your Lane’ is yet another song that goes to prove Barnett is one of the most interesting voices in contemporary music.
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