When Melina Duterte spoke to The Forty-Five about new album ‘Belong’, she reflected that this record made her feel “back”. Having last released a LP under the Jay Som name six years ago, it’s a poignant realisation. One that comes from time spent resetting after exhaustion caused by life on the road (and the change in day-to-day plans due to the global pandemic), and years spent scratching other creative itches. And it’s a statement echoed in the music: yes, Jay Som is back, and ‘Belong’ is a brilliant return to form.
While it may be Melina Duterte’s first record under the Jay Som moniker since 2019’s ‘Anak Ko’, a record of lush dream-pop), these years have been far from spent away from the music industry. She’s played in indie super-group boygenius’ live band and contributed to their Grammy award-winning album ‘The Record’, spent time producing music for other artists, and worked with the likes of Troye Sivan and Beabadoobee. As she told us, these years have been like heading back to school: “I didn’t go to college, but those six years were like audio engineering classes – YouTube University, and picking my friends’ brains.”
You can hear that throughout the record. Sonically ‘Belong’ immediately feels more expansive than previous releases. It’s a far cry from the bedroom pop label Duterte was painted with when she first started releasing music, and while the meditative sonics of predecessor ‘Anak Ko’ remain, there’s more bite here.
It draws on music Duterte listened to growing up, moments of classic emo or alt-rock cut through, with fuller, rockier instrumentation and choruses that transport you back to that era. Take ‘Past Lives’, a megalithic cut filled with cavernous guitar riffs and boasting guest vocals from the legendary Hayley Williams. Or ‘Float’, a driving belter which channels the best of classic pop-punk (think Jimmy Eat World or Fall Out Boy) and has a chorus ready-made for large-scale sing-a-longs. Fittingly, the latter boasts guest vocals from Jimmy Eat World’s Jim Adkins himself.
These collaborations are notable, too: ‘Belong’ saw Duterte actively expand her creative process, working with a wider group of artists (and guest vocalists for the first time), these collaborators adding further dimension to the bolstered musical world. ‘Cards On The Table’, a CHVRCHES-styled pop number, features Lexi Vega, of Mini Trees. The track is filled with pulsating electronics; the opening juxtaposes a driving synth line with lilting vocal melodies and lightly touched beats, before emerging at the soaring chorus. The duet element feels apt, too, as the track reflects complex dynamics between friends, and how difficult a fallout can be. The chorus is a particular gut-punch, these emotions simply summed up with the lyrics: “Cards on the table/Lay it all out/Say it/You let me down/Say it/I let you down”.
Elsewhere on ‘Want It All’, the record’s grungey final track, she explores the complexities of wanting certain things from your life, be that your career or relationships, and how they may clash, and not quite knowing the right path to take and where you may fit. As she asks: “Do you really want to go/Will you hate what you will find?”
It’s a big question, one that resonates both with growing up and growth as an artist. Honest and reflective, it’s representative of all of ‘Belong’, a record made after formative years, that while having questions to ask, also shows Duterte at her most musically decisive. Through the wider sonics and through her incisive lyrics, it’s a brilliant thing.
READ MORE: Jay Som is this month’s cover story
