Courtney Barnett’s fourth album is the loud, infectious counterpoint to its reflective predecessor, 2021’s Things Take Time, Take Time. Where that record was conceived in her Melbourne apartment during COVID lockdowns, Creature of Habit was penned amid the vast desert expanses of Joshua Tree, California. There, Barnett wrote material infused with the excitement of living in America, offset by a needling sense of doubt about her creative direction. Adding to the weight of the moment was her 2023 decision to wind down her Milk! Records label, making the whole experience a delicate balance between celebrating a new adventure and confronting the unease of profound change. That anxiety is reflected in spiky opener “Stay in Your Lane” as Barnett sings, “Feels like I’m going backwards/Each day I preach my practice/And still it seems I wasn’t ready for this.” “Mantis” charts a moment of encouragement during the process after she spotted a praying mantis in her kitchen and took it as a sign she was on the right path. Laden with indie-rock hooks (“Same,” “Site Unseen”) and Barnett’s trademark self-deprecation (“I know I’ve got a sensitive heart/I’m always picking it apart, when I throw it to the vultures/They don’t want it either,” she sings on “Sugar Plum”), the album ends on a note of optimism with “Another Beautiful Day”: “Reborn, every morning/Still somehow getting older...wish we’d thought to bring/Something to bottle up this moment.”