Songfacts®:

• In 2018, Courtney Barnett split with her long-term partner and fellow Aussie singer Jen Cloher. She wrote the songs on Things Take Time, Take Time between 2018 and 2020, and many could be construed as being addressed to her ex. However, Barnett said it's more complicated than that. "My songs reveal themselves over time. To assume that even I know exactly what they mean is dangerous territory," she told The Sun. "We as humans want to fit things tidily inside one box, so we can have some understanding."
• Given Barnett and Cloher's shared history of writing songs with and to each other, many fans assumed "Before You Gotta Go" is about not having any regrets about their breakup. However, Barnett insisted its meaning is more universal. "I've heard a few people refer to it as a breakup song, and I don't want to say that anyone's wrong or right, but I think it diminishes the intention of the song," she said to The Guardian. "It's more all-encompassing, and I feel like it would do a disservice to the song for me to box it into one moment, or one person."
• Written in the quiet of hotel rooms or a friend's apartment, Barnett recorded Things Take Time, Take Time with Warpaint's Stella Mozgawa. The pair previously collaborated on the Australian singer-songwriter's covers album with Kurt Vile, 2017's Lotta Sea Lice.
• Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore directed the video, which shows Barnett heading out into the field. We see her using an old-school tape recorder to record audio samples from the natural world.