A bold new chapter for the Australian singer-songwriter arrives with a record shaped by relocation, reinvention and a willingness to confront change head on.
by Paul Cashmere
Courtney Barnett has announced her fourth studio album, Creature Of Habit, arriving March 27 via Fiction Records. The 10-track collection is anchored by a new single and music video, “Site Unseen,” featuring Waxahatchee, and signals a significant creative pivot for the Melbourne-born artist as she emerges from a period of upheaval, reflection and transformation.
Recorded after Barnett’s move from Australia to Los Angeles and the closure of her long-running label Milk! Records, Creature Of Habit is described as a decisive new chapter in her evolution. The album is both intimate and expansive, addressing the question of how to get out of your own way so you can truly feel your life, rather than simply endure it.
Barnett’s lyricism has long been celebrated for its perceptive clarity, and “Site Unseen” continues that tradition with a reflective tone that carries a quiet urgency. The song opens with a sense of tentative possibility, with Barnett singing, “Letting go of everything that might have been, and if we like it here, we’ll stay another year,” before moving into a steady, emotionally measured acceptance of the unknown. The track’s themes of openness and acceptance of change are central to Creature Of Habit as a whole.
The song also holds personal significance for Barnett, because it features harmonies from Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee, one of her favourite singers. Barnett has said she attempted to record the track three separate times over two years, only to find it incomplete or unsatisfactory. It was not until the fourth and final version, when she invited Crutchfield to join her, that the song finally fell into place.
“I kept hearing this really high harmony in my head,” Barnett said, “so for the fourth and final version, I asked Katie if she’d be into singing it with me. I’m a big Waxahatchee fan. I really love Katie’s songwriting and her voice, so it was an honour to have her sing on Site Unseen.”
The single arrives after Barnett’s return to new music with “Stay In Your Lane,” released in October 2025. The track was marked by a restless energy and unapologetic tone, underscoring Barnett’s status as one of the most vital voices in modern guitar rock. The single was supported by a music video directed by Alex Ross Perry, and was performed live on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Barnett’s journey to this point has been defined by a steady rise from underground acclaim to global recognition. She first attracted widespread attention with her 2013 release, The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, and then broke into mainstream consciousness with her debut album Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit in 2015. The album earned her a Best New Artist Grammy nomination and a string of awards, including four ARIA trophies.
She continued to expand her profile with the collaborative album Lotta Sea Lice alongside Kurt Vile in 2017, and followed that with the more politically and emotionally charged Tell Me How You Really Feel in 2018. In 2021, she released Things Take Time, Take Time, a record that further demonstrated her artistic growth and willingness to explore new emotional and sonic territory.
In 2023, Barnett confirmed that Milk! Records would be disestablished at the end of the year after 12 years, closing a chapter that had become central to her identity as an independent artist. The final album released on the label was End Of The Day, an instrumental score for the documentary Anonymous Club.
Now, with Creature Of Habit, Barnett returns with a record shaped by both personal and professional change, a project that feels like a redefinition rather than a continuation. The album’s themes of uncertainty, reinvention and emotional honesty suggest that Barnett is not only confronting her own evolution, but inviting listeners to do the same.
Creature Of Habit Tracklist
Stay In Your Lane
Wonder
Site Unseen (featuring Waxahatchee)
Mostly Patient
One Thing At A Time
Mantis
Sugar Plum
Same
Great Advice
Another Beautiful Day
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