Avant Gardener

"Avant Gardener"
Single by Courtney Barnett
from the EP How to Carve a Carrot into a Rose
Released19 March 2013
Length5:12
Label
SongwriterBarnett
Courtney Barnett singles chronology
"Avant Gardener"
(2013)		 "History Eraser"
(2013)
Music video
"Avant Gardener" on YouTube

"Avant Gardener" is a song by the Australian musician Courtney Barnett, released as her debut single and a single from her 2013 extended play How to Carve a Carrot into a Rose, and later included on the 2013 compilation The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas.

Background and release

"Avant Gardener" has been seen as having Bob Dylan and the Byrds influences. The song itself tells a story of a woman who decides to get outside and do some weeding, but has a anaphylaxis induced panic attack soon after a conversation with a neighbour. The song had a music video released which showed a tennis match being played with a nonchalant umpire reading a book on Butch Cassidy and misses a tight line call, eventually leading to an on court fist fight.

Critical reception

In a review of the single for Pitchfork, Mike Powell summarized it to be about "the story of a girl dragging her underemployed ass out of bed late on a Monday morning to try her hand at gardening-- at which point she suffers a panic attack. The Day critic Stephen Chupaska wrote that "Over a mild psychedelic groove and a delivery that is equal parts Liz Phar and Craig Finn, Barnett pulls out language cocktails[.]" claiming the title the "best song title of the year." Arnold Pan of PopMatters called it a "free-form, free-associating trip, capturing an eventfully boring day in Barnett’s so-called life that begins with her sleeping in on a Monday morning and ends with her in anaphylactic shock in an ambulance."

Personnel

According to the CD single:

References

  1. ↑ "New song premiere! Avant Gardener". courtneybarnett.com.au. 20 March 2013. Archived from the original on 9 April 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  2. ↑ "EP2 How To Carve A Carrot Into A Rose". Retrieved 11 September 2026 – via Bandcamp.
  3. ↑ Powell, Mike (12 November 2013). "The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  4. 1 2 Powell, Mike (22 August 2013). ""Avant Gardener" by Courtney Barnett". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 19 March 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  5. 1 2 Cragg, Michael (1 October 2013). "Courtney Barnett – Avant Gardener: New music". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  6. ↑ Donovan, Thom (26 May 2025). "The Meaning Behind "Avant Gardener" by Courtney Barnett and Her Harrowing Slacker Anthem". American Songwriter. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  7. ↑ Chupaska, Stephen (28 December 2013). "Courtney Barnett - "Avant Gardener"". The Day. p. 15. Retrieved 11 September 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ Pan, Arnold (14 November 2013). "Courtney Barnett: The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas". PopMatters. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  9. ↑ Avant Gardener (notes). Courtney Barnett. Milk!. 20 March 2013.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)