Jay Som’s “Turn Into” Is Uneasy Dream Pop
“Turn Into,” the title track of Jay Som’s excellent 2016 tape (which has now turned into her first album for Polyvinyl), is a woozy, slippery slope. Like Bradford Cox at his most tranquil or Martin Courtney at his most psychedelic, Jay Som’s Melina Duterte creates an atmosphere that feels like a hazy, slowly deteriorating memory. The song’s cryptic title–which might conjure images of springtime and transformation–actually refers to a kind of devolution. As she reaches out to another person for help, she only gets more lost in her own fantasy: “You’ve turned into the sign I’ve wished for,” she sings, hinting that it might already be too late for both of them.
“Being scared is a huge theme of the album,” Duerte has said about Turn Into, “but towards the end—actually, I don’t know. I was going to say there’s a sense of acceptance, but I don’t think there is.” “Turn Into,” which closes the record, illustrates Duerte’s reluctance in tidying things up so neatly. In one sense, it’s a peaceful song: dream pop guitars, percussion as crisp and persistent as hand claps, and Duerte’s soaring Cocteau Twins falsetto. But even as Duerte sings about coming home and light kissing her eyelids, she sounds uneasy—like she’s not quite ready to give into it.
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