Lipstick Jodi Releases the Visual to “do/SAY”

Photo Credit: Hwa-Jeen Na

Lipstick Jodi, led by songwriter Karli Morehouse, premiered the video today for their new single “do/SAY” via New Noise Magazine, to announce their sophomore album More Like Me will be arriving May 7 via Quite Scientific. The Grand Rapids trio shared a burn-it-all-to-the-ground video encapsulating the song’s post-breakup, fresh start. Pre-order More Like Me here.

If you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with, what happens with the realization that they’re no good for you? When you try to help, try to leave, try and move on, but they won’t let you change and won’t let you go? More Like Me is this raw experience explored and expressed in depth; whipped and layered into a complex synth-pop sound. The tracks are highlighted by the vocals of Morehouse, which are alternately haunting, triumphant, sorrowful. Making you want to dance around your bedroom punching the air, singing at the top of your lungs.

Discussing the track, Morehouse notes, “I was in a toxic relationship that I felt like I couldn’t get out of. All of the blame was all being put on me, but I knew that it takes two. I was being gaslit into thinking that I was the only bad person in the relationship. The tone of ‘do/SAY’ really shows how angry I was and how I knew that I wasn’t insane the entire time.”

More Like Me thumbs through a journal of self-improvement, self-doubt, self-preservation, and self-celebration with each track an entry on its pages. Some written in a steady hand and some scrawled angrily on the page—music from the deepest valleys, celebrating small victories, right after a big fight, or driving fast yelling out the window on the treacherous road to trying to do better.

“One day I looked around at my surroundings and found that I needed something to change,” Morehouse continues. “I’d kind of lost myself when I was 20 and did a lot of things that I was not proud of in order to attain some sort of escapism. Something needed to budge. So, following a lot of emotional and boundary growth, the songs we finished center around change; letting go, and moving on. And while I didn’t go into writing ‘More Like Me’ with an idea of ‘I’m going to write about xxx’, looking back, in a way, this album is a loud scream to myself and others, that I wasn’t okay.”

More Like Me is also a departure from previous iterations of the band. The new, well-honed trio are now rounded out by Andy Fettig and Connor Middlebrook, bringing a whole new sonic styling as cutting and relatable as Morehouse’s lyrical subject matter.

“I love the feeling I get when I lose myself in a song that feels like it was made for me, and I like to provide that for the listener,” Morehouse states. “I hope ‘More Like Me’ leaves others feeling empowered and validated with each song they hear.”