Monday 10/5: Sad13—"The Crow"
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the Philly indie artist Sad13.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc.
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the Philly indie artist Sad13.
Sad13—“The Crow”
Eric Bennett:
One of the best things about Sadie Dupuis' work as Sad13 is how much it lets her experiment and push the boundaries of her own sound. She can still make a powerful, catchy rock song, but who’s to say that the song can't have synths with the tone of a video game soundtrack interspersed within it? Her record Haunted Painting is a decidedly maximalist work, and “The Crow” is no exception. The thematic mysticism that colors each track is just as dialed up as the sheer force of the music. It’s melody, for me at least, calls to mind “Kiss From A Rose” while its delivery carries the goth rock vibe of an Evanescence track. It feels like the musical equivalent of a world-ending storm, it’s guitars falling with slow but full of force.
The first time I heard this song was a few months ago while I was out for a walk. It was a gloomy morning, and when I looked up the sky was full with hundreds of swallows flying in circles. On the surface, this is just nature doing as it will, no part of anything more sinister, but you can’t help but still feel unnerved. That’s how “The Crow” feels to me, too. It’s a rock song, sure, but there are so many layers to it that feel dark for no other reason besides that's how they feel.
Eli Enis:
Like Eric said, Sad13’s Haunted Painting is a grab bag of different styles and sounds. Some of it aligns closer with the needly indie-rock Dupuis makes with Speedy Ortiz, while some of it sounds like creepy haunted house music that would be playing in the house that painting came from. Naturally, because “The Crow” is one of of the heavier songs on here, it’s one of my favorites. I really like the screechy fuzz distortion on the main riff, and that bizarre, almost proggy keyboard line adds so much eerie texture. I don’t necessarily hear Seal or Evanescence, but I don’t really have any more accurate comparisons except for the 2018 record by the band Dilly Dally. Stormy, seemingly possessed grunge music that collapses in on itself in the most majestic way possible. It’s great October music, that’s for sure.