Australian indie-rock duo Good Morning have announced their new album, Barnyard, and shared its first single, “Country.”
“Country” is a mellow, indie offering that reflects on frontman Liam Parsons’ life and how it has changed from adolescence to adulthood.
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“I’m still not sure if I’m singing to old friends, an old lover or my old self,” Parsons says in a press release.
“I think probably all three. At the time, I was having a rough one reconciling my life with what I had expected adult life to be. I knew that my younger self—a more virtuous, kind-hearted and patient person—would be perplexed by how I had turned out, and I felt a kind of second-hand embarrassment for myself looking over the last few years of false starts and dead ends. This song is an attempt from me to reconnect with my younger self as well as some key ghosts from my past and to move forward by looking back—pretty futile stuff, really.”
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Good Morning also shared a visual for “Country,” which follows the song’s theme of looking to the past and moving toward the future. It’s set against the backdrop of Parson’s childhood at 1st Eltham Scouts Hall, where he spent much of his childhood as a scout.
The group also told Alternative Press more about their inspiration for the track.
“This song for me is an exercise in putting some borderline-desperate lyrics over something surging and hopeful sounding,” Good Morning says. “That to me is the sweet spot, where you don’t have too much of either thing. When we were recording it, we went pretty hard on the layering of it all. I think in the end, there’s like 4 synth lines and 12 guitars, ’til it all gets kinda blurry.”
The hazy video opens on a chicken before panning to different musicians onstage with Good Morning. These various people include fellow Melbourne groups Cool Sounds and Skydeck.
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While announcing the new record on social media, the band wrote, “we made this record back in slightly similar times at The Loft Chicago over five days with the lovely tom schick. It feels like it’s been a while but maybe it’s been just the exact right time.”
“Country” is the latest music from Good Morning since their singles “Mollyduker” and “Keep It” were released in April, and Barnyard will be their latest full-length since 2019’s Basketball Breakups.
Barnyard is set for release Oct. 22 via Good Morning Music Company Worldwide/Polyvinyl, and you can preorder it here.
You can watch “Country” below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Barnyard tracklisting:
1. “Too Young To Quit”
2. “Depends On What I Know”
3. “Wahlberg”
4. “Yng_Shldn”
5. “Matthew Newton”
6. “Tree”
7. “I’ve Been Waiting”
8. “Burning”
9. “Big Wig // Small Dog”
10. “Never Enough”
11. “Green Skies”
12. “Country”
“Country” lyrics:
I’m thinking ’bout going back to the country
I’m thinking ’bout going back for some air
I’m thinking ’bout how we used to be friends
I wanna tell you being up there
So I’m writing you this song I wanna send you
In this room that I’m tryna keep clean
It’s time we overhear you by the whole punch
In the deaf nothing you could sleep
You know that I’m incapable of changing
Some people just get stuck in their ways
Never thought it’d be me locked
They say I was meant to be brave
The only thing about missing you
Is that I don’t miss you at all
Till now, I’m still thinking about you
Since you stopped returning my calls, oh
I think it’s a little bit different now
I got a boyfriend and I got a sight
I know the one really cares about me
And at least half the other one tries
Sometimes I still think about dying
No, not the fear but the want
Not quite as much as it did back then
But it’s still something I’m trying to work on
You know that I’m incapable of changing
Some people just get stuck in their ways
Never thought it’d be me locked
They say I was meant to be brave
But I think about going back to the country
I think about going back for some love
I think about how I can’t remember your face
But I know that I used to see it everywhere