Album Review: Sad13 Gives Listeners “Slugger” To The Heart

First, let me say, I love this artist’s name, and it is an important definer to her musical style. Sad13 is the moniker for Sadie Dupuis of the band Speedy Ortiz. Yet, it is the selected combination of sad and the “unlucky” number 13 that leaps off to me and will become revelatory to you after you listen to her new record, Slugger. 

Slugger is 11 tracks that delve straight for the destruction, deprecation, and toxicity that can arise in relationships. Such word descriptions may make Slugger sound like the most melancholic album you will ever hear. but, on the contrary, this album is like throwing a pack of sugar together with an electric guitar and watching all the pop-rock treats/ tracks mustered. It offers pure adrenaline to listeners as they hear the heart woes that have turned Sadie Dupuis into Sad13. Songs like “The Sting” and “Fixina” are like concentrated clusters of stringed chaos. Sad13 uses the guitar as an emblem for love’s internal anarchy as she arranges her strums to pounce through her tracks rather than course. The difference escalates the anger and frustration of Sad13’s felt failures at giving her heart to others whom never “returned the favor”.

There is nothing more intensely disappointing and rage-inducing than when you give yourself to another person assuming they have and will do the same. Intentions are important to relationship goals, which is why they must always be clear but are usually not. When you are falling in love, the last thing you want to know or realize is that your motivation is not matched by your partner. One of my favorite songs of the Slugger,  “Krampus In Love”, is an odd, fantastical ode to deciphering the reasoning behind a lover’s actions with Krampus, being a villainous. mythological character known for stealing Christmas gifts and even children in European lore. He is a punishing, downer of a figure notorious with taking the joy and bliss of children. Once again, like in her name, Sad13 is artful in her choice phrasing. Although the track speaks on Krampus romancing and being romanced, there is a dark cynicism that Sad13 sarcastically/ poetically sings to sweetened vocals. Can the demons you date truly cater to the celestial nature of love? This is the theme Sad13 is determined to investigate through am overall singing narrative that can go from naively gentle vocals to  ferocious, battle cry.

There are several enraging/ enlivening tracks to Slugger like “Line Up” and “Tell You What” that speak to female diminishment in relationships. Yet, Sad13 is not about telling you it gets better as much as telling you “It sucks”!, which makes listeners feel better. While many albums/ artists aim to valiantly ease and heal love’s torturous ways,  that is not Sad13’s goal. Lyrically and formulaically, she is an artist that wants to give you cool company in your misery. She is like the musical friend that will buy you a beer after you broke up with some “loser” guy.  Another humorous analogy, but Sad13 appreciates wit, resilience, and honesty in saying when love betrays or degrades you it should feel “horrible”. It is okay to cry and not move on so quickly because heartbreak should leave you stumped, nut it should also give you a platform for you to persevere as an individual like, Sad13. After all, no one should have their heart broken, to which Sad13’s Slugger is a divine reminder of this truth.. For More Information on Sad13 and to Buy Slugger Click Here.