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Sep 23, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Sad13

Sad13, aka Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz, is releasing her sophomore album, Haunted Painting, this Friday via Wax Nine. Now she has shared what is likely the last pre-release single from the album, “Ruby Wand,” via a stop-motion video for the song. Benjamin Stillerman directed the video. Watch it below.

Dupuis had this to say about the song and video in a press release: “Ruby’s my birthstone, thought to alleviate negative emotional energy and benefit self-awareness. So a ‘Ruby Wand’ would be an instrument to conjure those changes. The song is about working through an OCD flare up in the wake of complicated grief—seeking control through small rituals, good and bad. Lyrically, it’s more literal than most of my songs, and the music mirrors that narrative. The synths are calculating but also fantastical, while the guitars and drums push against that clock in heavy chaos. Might as well also admit that ‘Ruby Wand’ is a weapon from Star Ocean, one of my very favorite RPGs.”

Previously Dupuis shared the album’s first single, “Ghost (of a Good Time),” via a video for the track, which Dupuis said is a “party song about not going out.” The album also includes “WTD?,” a new song Sad13 shared via Adult Swim Singles in May. “WTD?” was one of our Songs of the Week. She also shared a video for “Oops…!” that featured Dupuis as a vampire who bakes cakes and other goodies to lure in her victims in the video. Then she shared another song from the album, “Hysterical,” via a music video.

Haunted Painting is the sophomore Sad13 album, the follow-up to 2016’s Slugger. The album was recorded at Tiny Telephone in San Francisco and New Monkey Studio in Van Nuys, California, a studio that was built by Elliott Smith in the 2000s not long before he died. The album was made exclusively with women engineers, including mixer Sarah Tudzin (Weyes Blood, Illuminati Hotties), tracking engineers Erin Tonkon (David Bowie, Esperanza Spalding) and Maryam Qudus (Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, mxmtoon), and “mastering legend” Emily Lazar (Beck, Dolly Parton). It also features guest vocals from from Helado Negro’s Roberto Lange, Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki, Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, and Pile’s Rick Maguire. Zoë Brecher plays drums throughout the album.

Dupuis had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “I worked on Haunted Painting throughout 2019, writing, arranging and recording from home, then finishing the songs in studios around the country in between Speedy’s fly-in dates. It’s maximalist, and more true to me and my tastes than any record I’ve done.”

Check out our Why Not Both podcast interview with Sad13 on Haunted Painting.

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