Courtney Barnett Announces Creature of Habit With Waxahatchee Collab Single

Courtney Barnett has announced Creature of Habit, her third studio album and follow-up to 2021's Things Take Time, Take Time. It drops March 27 via Mom+Pop, and the lead single 'Site Unseen' is a duet with Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield — which is, objectively speaking, one of the more exciting musical pairings you could put in a press release.

In a statement, Barnett explained the song's genesis: 'I tried three separate times over two years to track this song, and each time it either wasn't finished or didn't sound right and each time we had to start again. I kept hearing this really high harmony in my head, 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.'

That's the correct way to make an album: keep trying until it's right, and then invite exactly the right person to finish it. 'Site Unseen' is a warm, slightly melancholy duet that sounds like both Barnett and Crutchfield without sounding like a compromise. The guitar tone is classic Barnett — crunchy, direct — while Crutchfield's harmony sits high in the mix, filling in the emotional frequencies that Barnett's deadpan delivery leaves open.

Creature of Habit is a 10-track album that also includes last year's single 'Stay in Your Lane.' The tracklist name-checks a song called 'Mantis,' which has the potential to be either very scary or very funny. Barnett's track record suggests it'll be both.