Jay Som aka Melina Duterte takes time to figure it out. And with Everybody Works, she’s figured out that bedroom-pop doesn’t have to sound like it was recorded in a bedroom. Jay Som constructs songs with a painterly eye, augmenting her homespun indie with splashes of horns and piano and accordion. Over the course of the LP, billed as her official debut following last year’s Bandcamp release Turn Into, she moves from candy-coated fuzz-pop and slinky funk to subtle synth-pop and experimental soundscapes. “The Bus Song” is taken from Jay Som’s debut full-length, Everybody Works, out now!
If bedrooms are a new sort of laboratory for music, “The Bus Song” transcends those four walls. It is the perfect marriage of isolation and ambition, both in form and function. “I just want you to lead me/I just want you to need me,” sings Melina Duterte as the music crashes, plinks, and soars around her. It’s like being overpowered by a down-filled pillow. In a year of memorable hooks, “The Bus Song”’s is unforgettable.
The Fat Angel Sings 