Photo by Shervin Lainez

At the moment, Speedy Ortiz and Sad13 frontwoman Sadie Dupuis is on a nationwide book tour supporting her latest poetry release, Cry Perfume. She loves her words and her prose, a lot! Have you seen her annual stack of books read? That adulation is really beginning to permeate her songwriting approach as well on “Scabs”, the first new Speedy music since 2018’s Twerp Verse. Leave it to Dupuis to make its tongue-twisted callout on performative politics (“Who do you wanna prove you’re a big dog to? / You turn the screw but you’re using the wrong size tool”) sound easy to fall from the lips while executing use of the phrase “comment slop” and “monosyllables” in a way that defines one another from ends both ugly and eloquent – much like the most vocal of the virtue signaling bunch dressing up doing absolutely nothing as something more. Beyond Dupuis upping her wordsmith game, so has the band in its latest form, with guitarist Andy Molholt, bassist Audrey Zee Whitesides, and drummer Joey Doubek sounding even more effortlessly elastic between Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties’ bursting pop production. In a world tangled up in its own words, Speedy Ortiz are making sense of what’s really being said in it all.

Speedy Ortiz’ “Scabs” single is available now on Wax Nine Records.