Jay Som - Belong

Melina Duterte spent the last six years as the person on everyone else's credits. She produced and engineered on boygenius' Grammy-winning the record, played in their touring band including a Saturday Night Live appearance, worked with Troye Sivan, and wrote original music for A24's I Saw the TV Glow. If you followed indie rock at all this decade you heard her work constantly without necessarily knowing it. Belong, released October 10, 2025 on Polyvinyl, is the record where she stops being the secret weapon.

It is her first Jay Som album since Anak Ko in 2019, and the eleven tracks make the case that all that session work sharpened rather than distracted her. Recorded at Headroom Studios in Philadelphia and mixed by Duterte with Kyle Pulley, whose credits include Alex G and Dr. Dog, the album is warmer and bigger than anything in her catalog. "Float" leans on her gift for melody with Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World adding vocals. "Past Lives" pairs her with Hayley Williams, the two voices trading lines as the song builds toward a genuinely anthemic finish. Lexi Vega of Mini Trees turns up as well.

Everybody Works made Duterte a critical favorite in 2017 and Anak Ko deepened it, but Belong is the one that sounds like an artist who has decided to take up the whole room.

This is a used copy in VG+ condition, media and sleeve, so expect light cosmetic wear and clean play throughout. A recent release that does not turn up secondhand often.