Courtney Barnett – “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party” (video)

John M. Tryneski: I finally caught Courtney Barnett live at the Pitchfork Music Festival last month and it changed the way I saw her music. On record she generally sounds like a singer-songwriter at heart with a solid, if unspectacular, backing band. Live, the band comes alive, as does Barnett, with both taking pretty big (and often successful) swings at the fences of squalling rock ‘n’ roll grandeur erected by Cobain and Company. So I was a little disappointed that the “live” music video for “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party” was a relatively sedate lip-synced run-through of the song on the London streets that captured none of group’s ragged charm. The song itself is probably the most straightforward rock track on Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit but that’s by no means a problem, given its unshakable hook and universally-relatable chorus. So even while it can’t reach the lofty heights of “Depreston” and the video could be so much more, “Nobody Cares” is still an awfully solid third single from an album with all sorts of legs. [7/10]

Timothy Gabriele: I definitely sympathize with the sentiment in this song. And the number of cell phones attempting to snap their own piece of an unmonumental music video that is already being recorded for posterity makes me want to go to the party even less. I’m sure Courtney Barnett is aware of this, the irony of making a spontaneous-seeming street performance dedicated to debunking the “I Was There” mentality that drives millennials to the shows these days. Does she realize she threw her own fans under the bus in doing so though? [3/10]

John Bergstrom: So she’s from Australia, eh? And she’s single-handedly saving rock ‘n’ roll? Sorry, but I’m not buying just yet. “No One Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party” is OK enough, but from the title on down to the “impromptu street performance” video, it’s trying too hard to seem authentic and offhand. In other words, it’s sturdy, serviceable garage rock, masquerading as a Statement. [5/10]

Lee Zimmerman: Rousing, rambunctious and full of contradiction, “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party” is the kind of song that should help establish Courtney Barnett as pop poetess to be reckoned with. The fact that the video was filmed as a live performance not only establishes Courtney’s cred but also shows her natural zest and charisma. Here’s a young artist well worth watching. [8/10]