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Courtney Barnett, 'Rae Street'

Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett became a star on the strength of rambling, speak-sung story-songs and thorny anthems about the pressures that come with high expectations. On Things Take Time, Take Time (out Nov. 12), Barnett will tackle bliss and comfort at album length. In its first single, "Rae Street," she crafts a characteristically laconic and easygoing mix of domestic minutiae ("I might change my sheets today") and broader insights about the world ("Time is money, and money is no man's friend"). The song nods to pandemic life ("Let's get back to normal") while speaking to the larger idea that our homes and communities offer us shelter from the punishing din of modern life. Oh, and don't miss the video, which fills a cul de sac with Courtney Barnetts and watches them go about their day.

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Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)