Jen Cloher’s life changed significantly over the past few years as her partner, Courtney Barnett, became a world-renowned, in-demand rock ’n’ roll artist.
On her new and appropriately self-titled album, Cloher wastes no time in painting an unflinchingly honest portrait of that life and those changes. “You’d been gone so long, you could have been dead,” she sings on opening track “Forgot Myself.” “Piles of books you bought but never read/Paint a still life of your side of the bed/Patti Smith poems, a hair tie, and some vitamins/There’s only so much you can say in a text/Reading between the lines is hazardous/A slow reply can really mess with your head.”
“Forgot Myself” is just one of the songs on Cloher’s record that addresses Barnett’s success and the effect it’s had on their relationship. In “Sensory Memory,” she explains why she doesn’t tag along on all of her partner’s tours, and the closing track, “Dark Art,” ends with a sweet couplet: “You seem closer than you are/Loving you is like a bright star.”