Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

After playing with various bands in Melbourne, Barnett used money that she had borrowed from her grandmother to start her own Milk Records label[2] and released her first EP, I've Got a Friend Called Emily Ferris (2012). Following that release, Barnett signed to Marathon Artists (via its House Anxiety imprint). In August 2013, Marathon Artists released The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, packaging the first EP with Barnett's second, How To Carve A Carrot into a Rose.[3] The Double EP brought Barnett international critical acclaim, with the lead single, "Avant Gardener", named 'Best New Track' by Pitchfork in 2013.[4] How To Carve A Carrot was released on a limited run by Milk! Records as a standalone EP in October 2013. In 2014, Marathon Artists partnered with Mom + Pop Music for the US release of The Double EP.[5]

Barnett had spent a year writing songs for her album[6] but only showed them to her band a week before they were recorded in order to capture a "fresh" sound.[7] The song "Pedestrian at Best" was written "at the last minute" and the recorded version was the first time that Barnett had sung the words out loud.[7] The album was largely recorded over eight days[6] in Melbourne[8] in April 2014 but the release was delayed due to touring commitments.[9] Some early promo copies were distributed in Europe in mid-December 2014, and Barnett unveiled the album at the 2015 South by Southwest music festival in March and then embarked on a world tour beginning in Paris.[5]

In the liner notes, Barnett reveals that the album's title was inspired by a poster that hung in her grandmother's bathroom.[10] It is also used as part of the lyrics of the hidden/bonus song "Stair Androids & Valley Um..." (see Track Listing section, below).

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.3/10[11]
Metacritic	88/100[12]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[13]
The A.V. Club	A−[14]
Chicago Tribune	[15]
Cuepoint (Expert Witness)	A[16]
The Guardian	[17]
Los Angeles Times	[18]
NME	8/10[19]
Pitchfork	8.6/10[20]
Rolling Stone	[21]
Spin	9/10[22]

Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 88, based on 35 reviews.[12] In a review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it "invigorating", saying that it provided a "convincing argument that rock & roll doesn't need reinvention in order to revive itself."[13] Mike Powell of Pitchfork awarded the album a 'Best New Music' accolade, saying that "Barnett has nothing to prove and she's proving it."[20] DIY magazine's Jamie Milton called the record "exceptional" and said "make no mistake - this is a debut like few others."[23] Eric R. Danton, reviewing the album for Paste magazine, said that Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit was "one of the most compulsively listenable albums to come out so far this year."[24] Everett True wrote in The Guardian that the album improves upon each listen because "it's been a while since western rock music – let alone Melbourne's fiercely insular and often too-precious indie scene – has thrown up a songwriter and lyricist as intriguing, compelling and down-to-earth, yet surreal and morbidly funny, as Barnett."[17] In Cuepoint, Robert Christgau said Barnett's music has a "drive and focus" it did not have before, complemented by her passionate singing and a lyrical style reminiscent of John Prine and Jens Lekman but still "herself": "Formally, her songs are confessional, only they describe her material life and conflicted feelings acutely rather than dreamily, so that the songs occur in and are inflected by a deftly rendered physical and social world."[16]

In a less enthusiastic review, Christopher Monk of musicOMH called Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit "a likeable, enjoyable album rather than a great one", writing that "the craft of Barnett's words dwarfs that of her music...there are too many compositions here that feel underwritten."[25]

Rolling Stone ranked "Pedestrian at Best" at number 4 on its annual year-end list to find the best songs of 2015.[26]

Credits are adapted from liner notes of Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.

Musicians

• Courtney Barnett – guitar, vocals
• Dave Mudie – drums, percussion, vocals
• Bones Sloane – bass, vocals
• Dan Luscombe – guitar, vocals

Production

• Courtney Barnett – production, artwork
• Burke Reid – production, engineering, mixing
• Dan Luscombe – production, mixing
• Guy Davie – mastering
• Tajette O'Halloran – photography

• Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit at Discogs (list of releases)