Tell Me How You Really Feel
| Courtney Barnett
Tell Me How You Really Feel
Tell Me How You Really Feel is the second studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett. It was released on 18 May 2018 by Barnett's Milk! Records, Mom + Pop Music, and Marathon Artists. The album received generally positive reviews from critics. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Courtney Barnett’s second album is smaller, more introverted than her debut. It’s tentative but with a purpose, songs about what it means to not have—or need—the right words for everything.
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Rolling Stone
The indie-rock singer-songwriter mixes penetrating observation, wry humor and deep empathy on a modest masterpiece of an LP.
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NPR Music
Barnett excels at exhibiting both compassion and exhaustion at once, not so much masking one emotion with another but asking what it might look like to hold anger and love, fear and empathy, in our hearts in the same time.
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Consequence of Sound
The Aussie remains an introspective songwriter who listeners can also air guitar along to.
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The Guardian
This time there is a little less of Barnett’s artfulness – necessarily, given the title. The minor downside on this emotionally muscular set is that there is a slight loss of art in compensation. But even without the set dressing, the supporting cast, or the kitchen-sink details, Barnett is still a songwriter to beat, processing difficult emotions, lunging at optimism. .
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Drowned in Sound
The qualities that Barnett got pigeonholed with on her earlier EPs and debut – 'slacker, grunge, stream of consciousness' do appear, but only as slivers in a grander offering that requires a palate willing to savour the dish.
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NME
The queen of slacker cool exposes her guts on her dark and melancholy second album.
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Pancakes and Whiskey
Courtney Barnett is simply the best rock star we’ve had in a long, long time, and Tell Me How You Really Feel is her best album so far.
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Refinery29
That may be the secret for women in rock (or any aspect of music, honestly) to write the songs they want and play guitar however they feel: give yourself permission and then make yourself the shot-caller. In Barnett's case, it has certainly worked.
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Spill Magazine
There is no doubt that this album will be on many “Album Of The Year” lists as it is a front-to-back exercise in both lyrical and tonal quality, with as much of Barnett’s now famous quirkiness as there is overt social commentary. It’s an album that is made for quiet introspection and road trips alike, not to mention an album that will only solidify Barnett’s status as an album with something to say, a unique way to say it, and a message worth hearing.
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The New York Times
Courtney Barnett has sharply altered her tactics to live up to the title of her second solo studio album.
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SPIN
Over tunings that Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison would’ve recognized, and a Mudie beat that Moe Tucker would’ve applauded, Barnett records an afternoon of sometimes sitting and thinking; it’s lethargy under a glass.
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Uncut
Boldly affecting return from the hardest-working slacker in showbiz.
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All Music
Tell Me How You Really Feel isn't an album of moments, it's a collection that sustains a mood: a mood that's ragged and slack, but too dulled to charm.
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Slate
Even if Tell Me doesn’t prove all that durable, I’m glad I was suspicious of my disappointment with it, because it made me even warier of my earlier reflexes and projections around Barnett. The stream-and-sample tasting menu through which we consume music and everything else in 2018 encourages half-formed opinions to get lodged in place as we hurry on to the next sound, or the next meme, or the next headline. Allowing art, ideas, and events sufficient space and time to alter us, to undermine that confirmation bias, feels like one of the few avenues for removing the lessness from the hopeful.
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Alt Citizen
On Tell Me How You Really Feel, Barnett is here to tell us how she really feels through a mixture of earnest sentiment and sarcasm, but still provides us the space to be present, to sit and think about it all with her, or maybe just to sit.
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Music OMH
Barnett here is free of the traps of romanticism. Instead, she paints a picture of reality – painful, hopeful and complex. Tell Me How You Really Feel is a wonderfully curated record, which manages to be both cynical and whimsical at the same time. The depth of musical ambition and of poetic expression deserve a suitably large audience’s attention.
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The Current
You get all the distortion and crunch from her guitar, but the vocals cut through the mix and through your brain like a cannonball. For rock fans, this is must-have album of 2018.
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The Fader
Her new album is more introspective than anecdotal, but it still rips.
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Soundblab
Ultimately Tell Me How You Really Feel showcases that Barnett is one of the top songwriters of the day who has plenty to say and a lot of runway ahead to say it. She’s also here to let us know that in spite of all the motivational posters to the contrary that not everyday is going to be your best day - and that’s okay. It’s even more okay if you can channel that through all manner of expression on a Fender electric.
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A.V. Club Music
Tell Me How You Really Feel is a disappointing and muted record that never quite lives up to its potential.
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Slant Magazine
Barnett’s impossibly effortless tunesmithing remains a preternatural force on Tell Me How You Really Feel.
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The 405
Courtney manages to strike a balance between sombre acoustic music and guitar heavy grunge. Utilizing the balance to create atmosphere from song to song.
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Loud and Quiet
‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’ has Barnett more pointed, political (there’s a strong feminist bent throughout) and purposeful than we remember her from last time, but the self-awareness and incisive perception that truly define it have been there all along: they just burn brighter and ring louder the bigger her platform becomes.
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American Blue Scene
It’s a proper coda to a true ALBUM, in all caps, in the truest sense of the word. Say what you will about what slacker millennials bring to this world, but if they keep producing hard-working, ass-kicking, no-shit-taking, honest-at-all-costs rockers like Courtney Barnett, the music world will be a much better place.
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Sputnik Music
Believe me, it’s not that I don’t like Courtney Barnett. Especially after hearing her ambition and talent come through on an album rather than diluted on the stage, there’s got an incredible charm to her voice and lyrics, and there’s a variety of great guitar work from her on here. It’s more that I feel that there’s something more brimming in the background here. Something that she’ll have to really let spill over to capture her full potential. Once that happens, I know that she’ll have a truly memorable and challenging record to gift us with, one that better channels her confidence and conviction she so easily displayed onstage. But this album isn’t quite it. Not just yet.
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The Revue
Her lyrics are biting, yet as always hit the mark. The same can be said for Tell Me How You Really Feel, as Barnett has hit the bullseye once again.
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Exepose
THIS ALBUM WILL NOT BE A STAID RECREATION OF THE FIRST ONE!
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Musings by Madison
What’s brilliant about Barnett’s songwriting is how she articulates thoughts and emotions with such clarity that they feel universal, without ever sounding generic. Who hasn’t used a solo walk through the city as a loneliness cure? What girl hasn’t been told to carry her keys between her knuckles when walking alone? This record omits the surreal storytelling of her debut, but feels no less vivid for it.
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Hotpress
Courtney Barnett’s second album (I’m not including last year’s rather wonderful Kurt Vile collaboration, Lotta See Lice) harks back to the kind of laidback, yet angst-ridden indie that made Evan Dando and J Mascis household names in the ’90s – a good thing.
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NOW Toronto
Tell Me How You Really Feel is her most inward-looking album but also one that pulls back to engage with bigger political and cultural conversations more directly than we’re used to from her.
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Under the Radar Mag
Barnett combats episodes of self-doubt, speaking as though giving advice to a friend, though it's just as likely she's advising herself. "I know you're doing your best/I think you're doing just fine" becomes a gorgeous swell of a phrase, reaching out and spreading into a joyful anthem of everyone looking out for each other: "I know all your stories, but I'll listen to them again." Now this is honest, kind-hearted intelligence.
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Northern Transmissions
Barnett reflects on her own insecurities in “Walkin On Eggshells” as she seems to grow tired of trying to please everyone. Though it takes a familiar instrumental arrangement on the whole, the way she harnesses those sounds in every chorus are a fun twist. The rollicking drums of “Sunday Roast” make the fiery guitar sounds feel more immediate and personal. While it takes time to expand on this idea, when it finally releases all the tension, it closes the record out on an emotional high.
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Louder than War
Courtney Barnett releases her hugely anticipated sophomore solo album Tell Me How You Really Feel. Three years after the Australian’s landmark debut attracted plaudits and awards, Tim Cooper finds it lives up to high expectations.
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Vulture Hound
Barnett strikes gold again with Tell Me How You Really Feel and, with her ability to connect the dots in life in such a relateable and concise way.
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Pretty Much Amazing
On her thrilling second LP, Barnett abandons third-person intricacy for broader statements.
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The Line of Best Fit
At its heart, Tell Me How You Really Feel offers a sense of encouragement, finding reassurance in transience and seeking out a little beauty amidst chaos and turmoil. After all, isn't that really all any of us want to do?
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Spectrum Culture
Tell Me How You Really Feel is an album that doesn’t pander, doesn’t seem to capitulate to what Barnett’s fans already like and expect from her. With a musical maturity beyond her years and a willingness to hew to her own personality, Courtney Barnett is just getting started.
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The Aquarian
With Tell Me How You Really Feel, Courtney Barnett has raised her game — avoiding the typical stumbling blocks that bedevil so many follow-up albums, delivering a work worthy of multiple listens. While Ms. Barnett may not be widely-known just yet to American audiences, her rock ‘n’ roll sensibility should appeal greatly to fans of Wilco, Elvis Costello, and Neil Young. Without any doubt in mind, Tell Me How You Really Feel is an easy contender for Album of the Year.
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DIY Mag
yrically the most direct and honest Courtney has been to date.
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Mother Jones
Each song on “Tell Me How You Really Feel” is like a heartfelt message from a pal.
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No Ripcord
The performances are muscular and attention-grabbing, and the melodies built around her distress take new and zestful contours. It's a lateral move for a songwriter who's been praised for her past witticisms, even if her natural instinct for empathy has quietly been a continuing trademark of her work. At the end of the album, she concludes with some parting thoughts for a friend who's also down in the dumps. Barnett has written a long vent session for us to take notice, but it doesn't mean that she wouldn't do the same for us, either.
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bSmart Guide
Tell Me How You Really Feel is a thought-provoking testament to insecurity, anger and womanhood, and is definitely worth a good listen. Barnett’s reflections on self-doubt and personal anxieties serve as a reminder these struggles are universal, and shows her listeners that their 'vulnerability [is] stronger than it seems.' In her sophomore album, Courtney Barnett is telling the world how she really feels, and encouraging others to do the same.
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Saving Country Music
It’s the words, the capturing of unsettled moods in music, and putting rhyme to the little maniacal thoughts we all suffer from that makes Courtney Barnett’s music so unique, timeless, and infectious. We all need those moments when nobody’s looking to blare music too loud and use it like a steam valve for all of our frustrations and fears. Tell Me How You Really Feel delivers that experience.
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Uproxx
As well-written as her songs are, Barnett has lost some of her lightness, though hopefully not for good. Instead of sounding deadpan, she just seems a little tired. The result is less Damn The Torpedoes, and more Hard Promises. Still an album you want to play hundreds of times, though maybe on headphones instead of the car stereo.
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Pop Matters
On new album Tell Me How You Really Feel, Courtney Barnett twists her style just enough to dig into life's challenges.
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Newsday
With “Tell Me How You Really Feel,” Barnett solidifies her status as indie rock’s brightest, must-see new star.
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Richer Sounds
Barnett delivers just what we need at this moment in time: a brilliantly crafted, guitar-heavy, tasty soup of good old fashioned rock, with just enough modern edge to keep it fresh. Barnett is, or will be, one of our generation’s great songwriters, her trajectory currently set to send her in to the stratosphere. My rating for this album would be higher; but I have a feeling I need to leave some room for extra marks when Barnett’s next inevitably incredible album is released.
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Albumism
On Tell Me How You Really Feel, Barnett’s rambling inner-monologues are less manic, more methodical. There’s ample feedback, winding jams, and comfortable, easy rock. She’s more attuned to her feelings, effortlessly talking about the parts of life that are normally labeled as a bit of drag, instead of just part of the human experience. But Tell Me How You Really Feel is not Barnett’s thesis; it’s simply a good album from a great songwriter, and hopefully one of many. The ability to talk about emotion in a concrete, expressive way, while staying miles away from sentimentality is rare. But it’s apparently second nature to Courtney Barnett.
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Scene Point Blank
It’s just a bit of a bummer to hear Barnett sound tired and and actually a little bored. Sure, she’s sang about it, but it’s never really felt like it until now.
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Glide Magazine
With the release of her sophomore album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, it’s clear that Barnett has found a way to hold on to her familiar style yet make it sound more mature.
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Vue Weekly
Her newest collection of 10 songs Tell Me How You Really Feel is in the same vein as its predecessor, ripe with interpersonal stories and emotions Barnett chooses to share with her audience.
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Punk News
Tell Me How You Really Feel is a solid indie rock inspired record that finds Barnett grappling with the feminine frustrations within the music scene itself and the world at large. If her lyricism isn’t quite as giddy and overflowing as her debut, her approach to songwriting has developed into a comfortable confidence.
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Cryptic Rock
Tell Me How You Really Feel soars through the classic Barnett canvas of peculiar thoughts and observations, while valiantly standing up for issues plaguing current times.
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The Fanzine
Like many musicians who attain (however briefly) the level of fame Courtney Barnett is approaching, she is shoved toward collapsing into a perceived (and projected) persona. Are you listening? she sings, and if we are, we’ll hear her say she is and isn’t the person she seems to be in her songs. And we’ll notice that when she sings you she’s also singing me, and vice versa.
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Sungenre
Starting off gloomy, moving through moments of rage and distress and finally coming to a contented end, Tell Me How You Really Feel is some journey and definitely worth a listen or two. One gets the feeling that, though the issues from which this album stem may not yet be remedied, the process of writing, recording and touring this album will be a transformational one for Courtney Barnett and every progressively-minded person would do well to take in the messages she sends with this fantastic effort.
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Bearded Gentlemen Music
On one hand, Tell Me How You Really Feel represents the very natural growth and development to her sound, especially in light of the touring she’s done in the past three years and the excellent album she put out with Kurt Vile last year. But on the other hand, it possesses a darker, more mature, and more introspective tone and timbre than her 2015 debut full-length that I’m not sure I feel comfortable sharing it with my daughter until she’s a few years older.
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Clash Music
The stories are still there and the frazzled humanity at their heart is more affecting and indicative of longevity that its predecessor’s excitable twitching. The direct nature of the references to gender politics and the normalised macho bullshit of internet trolls are wonderfully withering and the meta references to following up a successful record avoid cliché. Not one for instant gratification, ‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’ benefits from the nurturing and patience mentioned in its lyrics. After the cheap - but definitely magical – thrills of her debut, this is a slow-burning triumph.
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Vulture
The new Courtney Barnett album is a valuable word about seeking out harsh truths and mustering the courage and mettle to make a better life out of whatever you learn. “You got a lot on your plate,” Barnett sings in “Help Yourself.” “Don’t let it swallow you.”
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Gigwise
Barnett knows that, whether she likes it or not, she has been put on a pedestal — and on Tell Me How You Really Feel, she’s grappling with whether to stay there or jump. In chronicling that struggle, she’s made another remarkable record.
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Nu Sound CLT
While she rips out intense, gorgeous, and soaring guitar melodies all over this record, her vocals reach new levels of expansive emotion. Her debut showed all the skills abound in her being, but this album underlines her as one of the most naturally engaging people making music right now. Don’t let this record get lost in the shuffle.
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Independent
Tell Me How You Really Feel is a weightier, more direct record. Witty anecdotes and black humour suits Barnett well, but her more serious, unguarded side is equally captivating. Derek Robertson.
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live4ever
These stop-start motions are the work of an artist in the throes of renewal, whether it be finding the energy to change a course or stay it. Tell Me How You Really Feel is an autobiographical work couched in idiosyncratic terms, one which makes for sometimes uncomfortable listening.
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Savage Thrills
All in all, Tell Me How You Really Feel takes on a more grungy, punk feel compared to her debut, but retains the superb songwriting and jangly guitars fans have come to love and expect from Barnett.
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Stomp and Stammer
“You know it’s okay to have a bad day,” Courtney Barnett reminds us on “Hopefulessness,” the opening track of her new album, Tell Me How You Really Feel. Though ripe with the lean prose and bulky sounds typical of Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, this time around Barnett has parted with the flippant detachment and replaced it with a refreshing, vulnerable meditation on the impossibility of articulating how we feel.
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Erie Reader
When you cleave away that almost punk rock energy you're left with something entirely more mundane. This isn't to say that the album isn't worth visiting or revisiting, far from it. Barnett has not made a mediocre album just yet. Starting off with perhaps too slow of a burn ("Hopefulessness"), multiple listens let the tracks sink in, and Barnett's lyrical ability is still in the upper echelon of songwriting at large. The lovable, prickly Australian seems to be diving into her own identity with increased transparency, exploring gender dynamics bluntly and poetically ("Nameless, Faceless"), with plenty to unpack.
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Financial Times
Tell Me How You Really Feel consolidates Barnett’s reputation as a sharp, thoughtful songwriter.
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Music in Sight
All the way through the album, this assurance is matched by self-awareness, and by attention to what’s happening inside others’ minds as well. It’s affecting and engaging, and makes for some very tidy songwriting. Wrap it up in rock and roll this good, and you are looking at a winner.
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Tree Fingers Online
On Tell Me How You Really Feel, Courtney is delivering quality indie rock tunes. Her lyrics, while still retaining those good ol’ millennial woes we all know and love, are not nearly as verbose as they were on past releases – a quick look at her lyrics page will indicate that. She’s mostly exchanged the stream-of-consciousness flow for hookier and more streamlined songs, resulting in some real highlights – Need a Little Time is a dreamy and melodic anthem for the weary, and Courtney’s showing improvements in the hooks and riffs departments, apparent on the catchy and buoyant Charity.
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Best Before
Maybe the reworking of Atwood’s quote has another value: wisdom. If the anger of “I’m Not Your Mother…” is anything to go by, men all around the world have Atwood to thank for avoiding the scathing of a lifetime. Instead what we receive here is a tactful and supremely enjoyable record that keeps Barnett in the place of music icon that also happens to be an Australian.
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God Is In The TV
There’s even a song called ‘Crippling Self Doubt and a General Lack of Confidence’ which is ironically one of the more upbeat tracks on the record, providing contrast to the chorus’s refrain of “Tell me how you really feel/I don’t know anything”. Is it a coincidence that it’s released in Mental Health Awareness Week? Maybe. Is it reassuring to hear these anthems to misery coming from one of the best songwriters in the world?
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The Indiecator
Just like on her previous albums, Tell Me How You Really Feel is an album that takes some time to fully appreciate and comprehend . . . If you worry that this direction represents a move towards her becoming a more conventional rock singer-songwriter, one who sings banal songs with standard structures over some guitar chords, rest assured that Courtney Barnett remains one of the most unique musicians out there right now. The world may have put her on a pedestal, but she honestly has yet to disappoint.
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The Arts Desk
Tell Me How You Really Feel is both introspective and escapist, personal and universal; a black comedy of anxious anthems. When a downward spiral is only ever a news headline away, a new Courtney Barnett song, dripping with cynicism, is a breath of fresh air; and this year, we got 10 of them.
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Exciting Stuff
Courtney Barnett has the ability to shape poignancy and uncomfortable subjects into catchy songs, but her jauntiness doesn’t distract from the core truth of her lyrics, and her heartbreaking vocals, which are at times raw and other times sweet – a good opposition, hidden in brilliant and re-listenable songs. Though this is more an album of darker themes and less hope than her debut, it is done with such panache and punk spirit that it would seem Courtney Barnett clearly knows her music sources, but makes them her own.
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The Fire Note
This is not a record that may be as intricately detailed as her early ep or debut full length work but it is a record that captures why Courtney Barnett is one to continually watch.
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Diandra Reviews It All
Her voice has a “prancing” quality to it that makes it appear easy through verses of uneasiness. Tracks like “Charity” or “Help Yourself” have her voice trudging through lyrics as if her vocals were heavy boots, yet they are also silvered with cool, edged spikes. In essence, she feels like a merchant of melancholy; selling and bartering the internal depressions we all carry to a slacker-pop melody and an endearing, rebel image.
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The Times
The indie rocker’s great skill is in making music that sounds as if it just fell out of her brain while being painstakingly crafted.
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Karibu
Tell Me How You Really Feel is the sort of album you can flip over and put straight back on. Although lyrically covering a lot of ground, it carries with it the effortless vibe of a West Coast summer. And we need that sort of thing every once in a while.
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B-Sides On Air
Overall, “Tell Me How You Really Feel,” is a great follow-up to Barnett’s debut. While not exactly changing sounds drastically like many artists do these days, she manages to keep things interesting while stretching out a little bit. The album is probably unlikely to win over any naysayers of her previous efforts, but dedicated fans should be more than pleased, and the album is overall incredibly accessible in a way that could very well open her up to new listeners.
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Setlist.fm
Some critics have complained that this new release doesn't pack the same punch as her beloved debut album, but in my humble opinion, the darker the better. I welcome her new approach and honestly don't think it strays too far from the punk roots found in Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. It's important for every musician to turn inward at some point in their career, and Barnett has the talent to turn that into art.
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The Student Playlist
'Tell Me How You Really Feel’ sees Courtney Barnett aim for a richer, darker and more harrowing sound for her sophomore effort, and it feels like a natural and successful musical evolution.
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The Wee Review
Barnett packs a lot into Tell Me How You Really Feel but it never feels overcrowded. Her acute observations and constant shifts through rock sub-genres keep the album from ever falling flat.
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Aesthetic Magazine Toronto
Barnett deserves props for her commitment to exhibiting the multifaceted range of human emotion. With sadness, we feel self-doubt and fiery anger. With love, we feel comfort and sometimes even the need for a little space. In other words, we are more than robotic beings chained to a dichotomy of happy and sad. With her 10-song collection, Barnett drags listeners along her own version of an emotional rollercoaster and forces them to realize that it’s a natural part of life to sometimes feel a little less than perfect. And, if you do happen to feel energetic, feisty, or even ready to conquer the world, no worries, that’s all up to you.
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Narc Magazine
Courtney Barnett is the authentic modern, culturally-enlightened, acutely self-aware zeitgeist that hipsters the world over try in vain to emulate.
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Beat Route
When you have as many feelings as Courtney Barnett, it’s hard to sum it all up without some redundancies and repeats, but for now her modesty and self-awareness has been keeping her relevant and a trusted Melbourne musical export.
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JB Hi-Fi
Every lyric is memorable as Barnett quotes one of the more creative burns she's received in a comments section, "I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and spit out better words than you." It would be pure comedy if it didn't invariably and insidiously cross over into anxiety about ones safety in the real world... illustrated perfectly by the chorus which borrows from a famous Margaret Atwood quote, "I want to walk through the park in the dark / Men are scared that women will laugh at them / I want to walk through the park in the dark / Women are scared that men will kill them / I hold my keys between my fingers."
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Audioxide
I’ve had a good time with Tell Me How You Really Feel. Where Courtney Barnett’s debut thoroughly enjoyed a raw energy, rough edges and all, this follow up feels more mature, with a touch more polish, all without losing any of the character I had previously enjoyed.
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Audioxide
Tell Me How You Really Feel is too busy, too neatly arranged for its low-key ruminations to really knock about and take hold. Each listen through settles into the mood of a glum road trip. I like that fleeting, floating vibe as much as the next guy (Andrew really liked it), but not enough happens on the journey for me to look back on it all that fondly, should I look back on it at all.
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Audioxide
Her guitar and vocal performances are rarely flashy, but they are always effective. There’s no doubt the formula works, but there is something missing to propel the music to the next level. I have faith that Barnett will get there, and Tell Me How You Really Feel will certainly tie us over in the meantime.
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Medium
Courtney takes us on a journey through existential despair and angry ramblings, but it takes the final song to lighten the mental load. In juxtaposing the initial paranoia with this final, satisfying sense of tranquillity, there is a sense that catharsis has been achieved. Barnett’s musical progression is evident on this latest album, and no stone is left unturned, demonstrating that she is not just a talented musician, but one that is coming into her own.
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NZ Herald
It's less accessible and more insular than her previous work, but Barnett isn't running away from her fans. Instead, she's pushing herself more than ever before. As the extreme close-up of the cover indicates, Barnett is asking us to look her in the eye, and really hold her gaze on an album containing her most personal music yet.
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13th Floor
I can’t deny my disappointment that a unique and innovative artist has created an album that, despite bearing all her trademarks, somehow comes off as neither of those things.
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The New Yorker
Barnett’s narrative sensibility is wry, but, unlike so many of her indie-rock forebears, she isn’t out to antagonize her listeners. Her work lacks the cynicism of more sardonic writers, like Stephen Malkmus or Frank Black. Instead, she’s witty and confiding. It often feels as if she’s leaning over, conspiratorially, and whispering something just to you: “Dude, can you believe how ridiculous it is to be alive?”
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Backseat Mafia
Lyrically, the entire album is certainly engaging and entertaining but the strength of the melodies and instrumentation create a magnificent album as a whole. Barnett has maintained her lyrical qualities that made her so special in the first place, but has further enhanced this with a greater melodic and pop sensibility. It is personal, intimate, and enthralling yet has a powerful enervating anthemic pulse: it rocks with intelligence and sensitivity.
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Boston Globe
The bottom line is that nearly every song on the new Courtney Barnett album has something to recommend it — a familiar melody that takes distinctive turns, a lyric that grows deeper with each listening, strong backup from a band led by Barnett’s rough-hewn guitar riffs. No, it’s not the Great Perfect Courtney Barnett Album I’ve been waiting for since first hearing her. But given the promise of her earlier work, it’s a thrill to hear her continue to move forward.
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Music and Riots
The rage, unanswered doubts, exhaustion, tenderness, frustrations, and how she ties everything together by finding a way to establish a connection amidst the entire whirlwind are nothing short of amazing.
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Hooligan Magazine
Overall, Tell Me How You Really Feel is a summer album for the melancholic. Those who spent the winter indoors leaving texts on read and cancelling plans, can step out into the sun with this as their soundtrack — a smart, catchy record that feels as warm and complicated as the changing of the seasons.
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Xpress Mag
Other highlights include the beautiful Need A Little Time which showcases Barnett’s singing voice in a way we haven’t heard much of before, and Hopefulessness, a slow burner not dissimilar to her previous work and perfect introduction to the album. It also has one of the most affecting sentiments of the whole album, “Yknow what they say/ No one’s born to hate/ We learn it somewhere along the way”. A neat message to take away from another wonderful Courtney Barnett album.
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Vocals On Top
Every songs here is a highlight, you won’t find a weak song that doesn’t possess something interesting. Barnett simply knocked her proper sophomore album out of the park. If she can continue to write songs this good and interesting her records will be must-buys for years to come.
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Words for Music
This album could easily be spoken about in the next 20 years as one of the indie favourites, along with her debut album. It was great to hear that she didn’t step out of her wheelhouse because it’s quite clear there’s so much more she can do in there, and hopefully she will be doing that for many years to come.
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Nashville Scene
In a barren rock landscape hard up for new torchbearers, one hopes that going forward, she’ll keep stepping further out of her comfort zone.
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The Forest Scout
On her second album, Barnett explores the realm of the indie genre by extending herself beyond the boundaries she previously held herself to on her freshmen debut.
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Into The Void Magazine
The songs lack the same head-nodding catchiness of the last album but given the growth that’s occurred in all other areas this feels like a worthy sacrifice.
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Gig List
Australia's supreme rock laureate takes aim with her wry wit on sophomore LP.
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Stack
Ultimately, what makes this album special is how Barnett makes her lyrics feel universal. It’s this quality that serves as clear proof of her significance in Australian music.
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Queer Try
Overall, Tell Me How You Really Feel is sometimes abrasive, usually insightful and always interesting, and that is how I really feel.
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The Thin Air
Although the songs here may lack some of the wit that made her debut so enjoyable, Tell Me How You Really Feel delves deeper, finding Barnett is a more honest form that is equally, if not more, rewarding.
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XFDR Mag
This might seem like a long-winded play-by-play of a 37-minute album, but Barnett’s craftsmanship is worthy of every word. While it might be only her second studio album, with TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL she’s continuing her career with strong and impressive work, especially in the story arc she created to explore her struggles.
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For Folk's Sake
Cursed by the success of her first album in many ways, Courtney has taken a slightly different approach to this record, resulting in a coherent, mellow, grunge album with fresh observations of everyday situations and relationships. Tell Me How You Really Feel demands a little more attention than previous albums, but it’s totally worth it.
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LONDON IN STEREO
Still only two albums in, she’s produced a three-act reflection of the human condition that’s a triumph of candour and honesty from one of the most perpetually engaging and captivating songwriters around.
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Tarka Blow Pig Music
Courtney Barnett has, without doubt, taken on the mantle of those female artists who were inspirational and has taken that forward with this outstanding album. With attitude aplenty, great playing and fabulous lyrics the album will reward the listener and no doubt will feature highly in end of year lists. And to answer the question the album poses, well this reviewer feels mighty impressed with this brilliant piece of work.
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SLUG Magazine
Tell Me How You Really Feel is ardently raw and toggles between classic-style Barnett, nuances and novel endeavors. Whatever she does, Barnett seems to do it well, guided simply by instrumental exploration and musical soul-searching. Since her first full-length release in 2015, Barnett has proven she’s a musical standout: Tell Me How You Really Feel not only hits the nail on the head—it raises the bar for what’s to come.
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Dork
That by her second full-length Barnett is able to match the confused, emotionally unsure modern world to a delivery pitched with such deft care, without ever seeming to try too hard with it, is a testament to the artist she’s become. With a warmth and intelligence those twice her vintage still struggle to find, we feel okay, actually.
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Earbuddy
Tell Me How You Really Feel doesn’t have the same precarious high points of her past work (and I still throw “Elevator Operator” and “Avant Gardener” on constant rotation), it’s a much more consistent album than her other records. Every song is enjoyable, though not a revolution.
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Bernard Zuel
Appropriately enough as it gently glides by like a pushbike ride soundtracked by deep ocean guitars in your headphones, it addresses the comfort of home and acceptance, and the fact that not everything need be perfect. With maybe a splash of the sanguine in the mix to remind you that it’s adults at play here.
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XS Noize
Every lyric is memorable as Barnett quotes one of the more creative burns she’s received in a comments section, “I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and spit out better words than you”. It would be pure comedy if it didn’t invariably and insidiously cross over into anxiety about ones safety in the real world… illustrated perfectly by the chorus which borrows from a famous Margaret Atwood quote “I want to walk through the park in the dark / Men are scared that women will laugh at them / I want to walk through the park in the dark / Women are scared that men will kill them / I hold my keys between my fingers”.
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