Nearly five years between albums, and Courtney Barnett has relocated from Melbourne to Los Angeles, reckoning with what it means to uproot yourself from everything familiar and start again somewhere new. You can feel weariness in the subject matter and the lyrics of Creature of Habit, but not the tone which is bright, bouncy and full of life, sounding like a friendly day at the beach.

Courtney Barnett has always operated in an intimately conversational indie rock style that artists from Australia and New Zealand like Stella Donnelly and The Beths do better than anyone else, always feeling completely unpretentious. What separates Courtney from her peers is what she does with her guitar, as this indie record would hold its own at a traditional blues festival with inventive chord choices and exceptional playing that would impress even the huffiest, stuffiest traditionalist. Her language is not particularly poetic, and is instead full of the kinds of everyday lines you say to yourself in moments of frustration or quiet reflection that pass through your head and feel too ordinary to say out loud. There’s no decoding required, and that directness is a gift. Stay In Your Lane opens the album with grungy, heavy blues and Wonder follows as one of the album’s most beautiful moments. Mostly Patient is a lovely fingerpicked tune, whilst One Thing At A Time is built more like an anthem allowing space at the end with sections extended well beyond what you might anticipate as the whole band settles into a terrific groove and enjoys staying there. Same is a particular highlight, so classic in its songwriting that it could be from the sixties. The warmth of the Melbourne scene is unmistakable, even in Los Angeles. Maybe more than geography, it’s because Courtney has mastered her habits, having been through a lot, but arriving somewhere new happily.