NEWS
EVENTS
Jay Som's 'Everybody Works' Bleeds Angst, Desire & Bitchin' Vocals
Utterly sublime in its every essence, Jay Som was just in time for spring when she dropped her first full length debut album Everybody Works.
For the sheer gift alone that every breathe, pick and key heard on Everybody Works is a complete DIY effort from Melina Duterte’s own hands, she deserves our praise for writing, recording, and producing every note and tone on the album.
The Oakland star recorded the entire album within just three weeks, all in her bedroom, with such a casual recording style being responsible for the fuzzy vocal effect inherented to 90’s nostalgia rock present on each track.
The production alone hooks listeners in; trailing a serene path of dramatic lows, sudden drops and reinvigorating snags. There is a smooth weld of lo-fi, grainy rock with sonic folk that shapes the entire album and stretches to all corners of our imaginations.
However, this doesn’t mean that Everything Works is not diverse. Contrast is at the heart of this album and is what makes it tick. Jay Som’s range of sounds exposes listeners to her variety of genres, as physically from track to track each song holds its own personality.
Jay Som's ('BedHead') is filled with jarring guitar undertones and Som’s eerie poems about stage fright. Whereas the Californian ease of her hometown seeps throughout 'One More Time, Please' A track that reeks of funk and is closed with dream-like, ethereal tones before plunging into a substantial guitar solo.
Duterte’s lyrics are as easy going as her soothing melodies. Her Lyrics are touching, such as 'For Light', a track that treads on a more gloomier foot, but which has lyrics that are ambiguous enough for almost anyone to slip into them,‘on the small of your back, I trace a line to carve’.
Other standout tracks on the album include the rugged '1 Billion Dogs' with its harder rock character and 'Baybee' that nods towards a pop agenda.
Get your copy of the album on tape, vinyl or CD HERE.
