“Mini nervous breakdowns” call for mini solutions. Sad13 — a.k.a. Sadie Dupuis, also of Speedy Ortiz — has dropped 1331, a mixtape of one-minute(ish) solo songs that she recorded from her Philadelphia home. The project, which dropped earlier this month (July 10) via Exploding In Sound, could easily serve as a commentary on the public’s dwindling attention span. Dupuis, however, had other motives.
Following an emotional rough patch in the spring of 2024, Dupuis pledged to herself to write daily songs that were roughly one minute each. The project transformed when she shattered her elbow in a bicycle accident that summer; even after reconstructive surgeries and one year of rehab, she was still enduring nerve damage that limited her ability to record.
“My body didn’t have the juice,” Dupuis says. “But tracking in little bursts over more time gave me broader influences.”
All together, the 13 new tunes are just shy of 16 minutes. Dupuis’ ease with the format comes as no surprise — she’s an accomplished poet, and her flitting musings naturally nestle inside these surges of jangly pop-rock. (She even coos the line “take naps when I’m tired and work on my prose” on mixtape closer “Third Rodeo.”)
“I obsess over short songs—jingles, interludes, anything truncated that rewards more listens,” Dupuis adds.
Tune in below, and catch Sad13 performing tonight (July 24) at The Rockwell Theatre in Somerville as part of the three-day NICE, a fest.