Jay Som Gives Us Buzzy Guitar Euphoria with ‘Peach Boy’ [Stream]

Jay Som (the project of Northern California’s Melina Duterte) has soared to new heights the past few months. Having gotten her start on Bandcamp, Duterte’s songs have been gaining noticeable traction since last year, and her rise is only beginning — she’s currently on a US tour with Mitski and Japanese Breakfast. All this has led to the recent announcement that she’s signed to Polyvinyl Records, who will be releasing a physical re-issue of her latest album, Turn Into, November 18, as well as releasing her official debut album next year.

“Peach Boy” has all the dreaminess and easy-listening of her recent hits, but deals with the complicated emotions of caring for someone in a different emotional place than yourself, acknowledging the pitfalls of such an imbalance. She sings: “And when the time has come will you run off to make your mark? / Your secret lullaby will pull my strings to hurt my pride / I’m wandering off again / You’re bored again, so cold again” to suggest the profound effect two people have on each other in a relationship, and the ways in which people respond to feelings of boredom or restlessness. Duterte’s intelligent instrumental composition doesn’t overshadow — as it so easily can in this genre of blissful, dreamy distortion — but accentuates her thoughtful musings about the shortcomings we find in others as well as within ourselves.