Nameless, Faceless

Album: Tell Me How You Really Feel (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Nameless, Faceless" finds Courtney Barnett singing about misogyny and internet trolls.

    He said "I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup
    And spit out better words than you"
    But you didn't


    The words were inspired by a comment that a troll had made about Barnett's music. Rather than taking offense, the singer found it so amusing she stuck it into this song adding the withering response.

    Must be lonely
    Being angry
    Feeling over-looked
    You sit alone at home in the darkness
    With all the pent-up rage that you harness
    I'm real sorry
    'Bout whatever happened to you
  • Barnett loosely quotes in the hook Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood's line, "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them."

    I want to take a walk in the park at night
    Men are afraid that women will laugh at them
    I want to walk in the park at night
    Women are afraid that men will kill them


    Barnett said: "I actually lifted it from an article, not knowing it was her quote. I didn't know who she was until I saw The Handmaid's Tale, and I didn't make the connection until I was getting the album credits together. But I'd seen it a couple times in things I was reading, and I remember being like, 'That is the strongest point.' Because it's so dumbed-down, it's kind of funny - the way it flips is funny - even though it's not a funny thing at all."
  • Barnett told Pitchfork: "It was a hard song to fit together, because the music was this combination of three songs I was working on, and the lyrics came later. Instrumentally it's so silly, it's got such a poppy verse."

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