Creature of Habit

Creature of Habit is Courtney Barnett's fourth studio album, released on March 27, 2026 via Mom + Pop Music (US) and Fiction Records (UK). It arrives nearly five years after her third album Things Take Time, Take Time (2021), making it one of the longer gaps in her catalog and giving the record considerable weight as a statement of return and resilience.

The album was recorded at Animal Rites studio in Los Angeles and Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree, California, a storied desert studio with a legacy tied to artists including Queens of the Stone Age. It was produced by Barnett alongside John Congleton, Stella Mozgawa (of Warpaint), and Marta Salogni. Mozgawa plays drums and percussion throughout; Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers contributes bass to the track "One Thing At A Time"; Floating Points also appears.

Thematically, the album maps a journey from stasis to motion. Its title is the central metaphor: Barnett as a creature of habit who is trying, carefully and imperfectly, to break her own patterns. The first half of the record dwells in anxiety and inertia; the second half opens toward change and renewal. The album closes with imagery of a new day beginning, making the arc from opening tension to closing lightness feel genuinely earned.

The personal context for the album includes the 2023 closure of Milk! Records, the independent Melbourne label Barnett co-founded with Jen Cloher in 2012, and a period of depression and self-doubt she has spoken about candidly. The writing process was deliberately grounding: each morning she sat at a kitchen table with a guitar and notebook, filling pages with unfiltered thought before filtering began.

The album takes its most striking image from the sixth track, "Mantis." While working on the song, Barnett noticed a small green praying mantis perched on a doorframe in her Joshua Tree kitchen. She researched the insect's symbolic resonance and found that in various traditions it represents patience, perseverance, and guidance for those who feel lost. The encounter broke a creative logjam and helped her finish the song. The mantis she photographed became the album's cover image, making the personal mythology of the moment the visual identity of the entire record.

Creature of Habit received a Metacritic score of 79 ("generally favorable"), with MOJO awarding 4 out of 5 stars and PopMatters giving it a 9 out of 10. Critics praised it as a confident return, noting a shift from Barnett's signature quick-witted irony toward a more direct emotional honesty.