Six months after its 4 June launch, Jon Bellion’s Father Determine reveals itself as one in every of 2025’s most misunderstood albums.
The 14-track document arrived after a seven-year hiatus, throughout which Bellion reclaimed his masters from Stay Nation and earned 4 GRAMMY nominations for manufacturing work with Jon Batiste, Justin Bieber, and Lizzo.
That is his first album launched independently via Stunning Thoughts Information, marking a return on his personal phrases.
That manufacturing work positioned Bellion as one in every of modern pop’s most influential architects, although his contributions usually went uncredited in public discourse.
While artists he’s formed dominated charts and conversations, Bellion remained within the background – a curious place for somebody whose fingerprints seem throughout the sonic panorama of mid-2010s to 2020s pop music. Father Determine feels, partially, like his assertion of authorship.
“No person walks away for six years after which comes again and says, ‘That is what I’ve discovered in six years of being away from the machine,’” Bellion advised GRAMMY.com in June. “To stroll away for six years, develop myself as an individual, after which come again? Individuals don’t get that chance. Ever!”
That improvement formed each facet of Father Determine. The album paperwork Bellion’s transition into fatherhood throughout three sons, his authorized battle for inventive management, and his relationship together with his spouse, who has recognized him since age 15. “She’s been round for a very long time,” he defined. “She is my anchor to actuality.”
The Inventive Course of: Distant Collaboration and Spontaneous Recording
The manufacturing on “WASH” showcases Bellion’s meticulous method to vocal layering. What turned one of many album’s standout tracks emerged from Bellion’s overwhelming response to his spouse’s magnificence, remodeled into intricate manufacturing that prioritises emotional resonance over radio enchantment.
Monitor three, “OBLIVIOUS,” showcases related sonic ambition with fantastically layered manufacturing that channels mid-2010s Coldplay at its most atmospheric – the monitor builds in direction of a piano second close to its conclusion that some listeners have in comparison with Moby’s “Porcelain,” demonstrating Bellion’s present for mixing influences into one thing distinctly his personal.
Its central lyric – “If love is a lie, I’m oblivious” – captures the album’s willingness to embrace vulnerability with out cynicism, selecting deliberate naivety over protecting detachment.
“I needed melodies that had been so infectious that you just had been virtually indignant at it and lyrics which might be simply as vivid, however crisp and targeted and utterly intentional,” Bellion mentioned about his inventive goals.
Fatherhood as Central Theme
Written 48 hours earlier than his first son’s start, “WHY” (that includes Luke Combs) captures the fear of latest parenthood.
“What in case you break my coronary heart? What in case you get damage?” Bellion defined. “Perhaps a track about that might assist lots of people in relationships, not simply guys who’re having sons, simply people who find themselves like, what do you do with love if it makes you weak?”
The track doesn’t present solutions. “I like that the track doesn’t offer you a solution,” he famous. “‘If the upper I fly is the additional I fall/ Then why love something in any respect?’ I believe coming from the place of I don’t have a solution will make folks relate to it extra.”
Title monitor “FATHER FIGURE” combines breakbeats, sirens, and fractured choirs to create what Apple Music describes as “a maelstrom that underscores what feels just like the album’s assertion of function: ‘Had an enormous chain ’spherical my neck/That I labored for my complete life/However the first thought was my children.’”
The manufacturing’s spine reportedly makes use of a chopped-up vocal pattern from collaborator Dougie, whose unused verse from “ITALIA BREEZE” included the phrase “recognized to guard, I try this shit nonetheless.”
Bellion repurposed this into the monitor’s basis, creating what he calls a meditation on presence versus perfection.
Regional Id and Musical Heritage
“ITALIA BREEZE” showcases Bellion’s Lengthy Island Italian-American background via J Dilla-influenced hip-hop manufacturing.
“In my youthful years on Lengthy Island, Rakim and Erick Sermon had been form of the one guys who actually made it, moreover Billy Joel,” he defined to GRAMMY.com.
“As you become older, you suppose again on these reminiscences, the tradition that you just grew up on, the construction that offered you, and the jokes—Italians have a lot tradition.”
The monitor contains the road “They referred to as us guineas for rockin’ pinnies I rock ’em nightly,” reclaiming slurs Bellion heard as a toddler.
“I’m carrying a tee proper now! Now, I rock ’em to sleep as a result of it’s a return to my ancestors and my grandparents who raised me and obtained me to this degree.”
The monitor’s most placing second arrives in its central assertion: “Little one of God, I’m the Alpha and Omega’s draft.”
It’s a declaration that positions Bellion as each divinely purposed and ancestrally linked, reclaiming id via religious authority moderately than in search of exterior validation.
But “ITALIA BREEZE” stays one of many album’s extra divisive tracks. While Bellion’s lyrical reclamation of cultural id resonates powerfully, the laid-back rap supply feels considerably undercooked sonically in comparison with his earlier excursions into hip-hop territory on tracks like “Grownup Swim.”
The manufacturing by no means fairly achieves the easy groove it reaches for, making it one of many album’s weaker moments regardless of its thematic significance.
“RICH AND BROKE” attracts from the 5 April 2024 magnitude 4.8 earthquake that hit close to Tewksbury Township, New Jersey.
“For a Lengthy Island child turned New York artist, that’s a reminiscence, not a metaphor,” as one evaluation notes. The manufacturing options TenRoc’s programming and Manny Marroquin’s combine, with “stacked vocals” making a crowd impact round Bellion’s lead.
Strategic Collaborations
Pharrell Williams seems on opening monitor “HOROSCOPE,” a pairing Bellion describes as deeply significant.
“Pharrell actually raised me musically. That’s the precise sensei,” he mentioned. At a dinner collectively, Pharrell advised Bellion: “Chris Martin. Linkin Park. I haven’t heard one thing like that that has made me really feel like that is massive, and I really feel included till you performed me your album. This is essential. Maintain doubling down on it.”
Jon Batiste options on “MODERN TIMES,” initially written for Batiste’s World Music Radio album. “As I used to be writing it and doing the melodies, I used to be placing my youngsters to mattress, and lightning struck,” Bellion recalled.
The monitor explores American nervousness via layered manufacturing that builds to Batiste repeatedly screaming “America” by the track’s finish.
“GET IT RIGHT” options 5 uncredited vocalists, together with what sounds remarkably like Teddy Swims on the refrain harmonies, found by attentive listeners.
The choice to go away options unlisted displays Bellion’s anti-commercial method. “We’re not targeted on streams or utilizing names to get one thing,” he defined.
The monitor features as an autobiographical love letter to his spouse, referencing their teenage years collectively (“I keep in mind I used to be 15 / Your sister mentioned I used to be good, however I’d by no means be Swizz Beatz”) and celebrating her steadfastness via his profession ascent while sustaining her grounded nature (“Says Chanel on the bag, however you’re nonetheless utilizing coupons at Goal”).
The Album’s Visible Id
The quilt {photograph} exhibits Bellion’s dad and mom from a long time previous, his father seated together with his mom positioned on his leg, surrounded by distinctly Italian-American decor. “That’s actuality.
That’s the closest factor we’ve to actuality,” Bellion mentioned. “That, to me, felt like the precise reverse of the animated covers of Glory Sound Prep or the quilt of The Human Situation, which was like, ‘Include me to this place!’ Now, at 33, it’s like, these are my fears. That is my trauma. That is my household. That is who I’m, and I can’t escape.”
Vital Reception and Industrial Efficiency
The album debuted on the Billboard 200, marking Bellion’s return after seven years. Launched independently via Stunning Thoughts Information following his departure from Republic Information, Father Determine demonstrated industrial viability with out main label help.
Vital response break up between these appreciating Bellion’s maturation and followers wanting The Human Situation’s maximalist method.
Spectrum Tradition famous how tracks like “ITALIA BREEZE” showcase Bellion’s “proximity to New York hip-hop and his examine of musicians like J Dilla.”
The publication praised the Pharrell collaboration as “one other confirmed hitmaker acknowledging Bellion as a member on this unique area.”
Album of the 12 months consumer scores ranged from 67 to 100. One reviewer famous that “WASH may be the perfect track Jon’s ever made. The manufacturing could be very lush, the lyrics are significant, the vocal efficiency is nice.”
One other referred to as the album “his most constant and touching effort” whereas acknowledging “a couple of weaker moments.”
Reddit’s r/popheads dialogue thread revealed divided opinions. A number of longtime followers expressed feeling disconnected from the brand new route, with one stating they “could have simply outgrown my Jon Bellion section.”
Others praised particular tracks whereas critiquing the album’s pacing and have chemistry. The deeper album cuts reward shut listening.
“DON’T SHOOT” takes an sudden detour into southern nation territory, with Bellion adopting a delicate twang that originally appears incongruous together with his established sound.
But the gamble pays off – the restrained nation inflections work much better than the extra overt crossover try on “WHY,” maybe as a result of Bellion absolutely commits to the stylistic departure moderately than straddling genres.
“RICH AND BROKE,” impressed by the April 2024 earthquake that struck New Jersey, builds on drum and bass foundations while Bellion displays on how materials possessions misplaced that means the second the bottom shook and his first thought turned to his youngsters’s security.
Nearer “MY BOY”: Vulnerability With out Orchestra
The album ends with “MY BOY,” that includes solely an SATB choir backing Bellion’s vocals. “I hate the weak point of exhibiting my son what makes me unhappy,” he confesses within the spoken phrase part, earlier than concluding: “He mentioned a gift father is value far more than an ideal dad.”
This closing monitor strips away the album’s “gorilla vitality of the masculine” (Bellion’s phrase) to disclose the vulnerability beneath.
It’s the album’s most devastating second – a meditation on the impossibility of actually shielding one’s youngsters from the world’s ache, delivered with such uncooked honesty that it turns into genuinely transferring.
The simplicity amplifies the emotional weight; the place different tracks showcase Bellion’s manufacturing prowess, “MY BOY” depends solely on voice and choir to create one thing achingly tender.
His youngsters have heard the album extensively. “They’re within the backseat saying, ‘Placed on HOROSCOPE!’ ‘Learn you want a horoscope, learn you want a horoscope!’ ‘What occurred to your mild, what occurred to your mild?’” Bellion shared. “I believe these are formative reminiscences for them.”
The Verdict: Artwork Over Algorithm
Father Determine features as a press release album within the truest sense. Bellion selected inventive development over industrial calculation, mature restraint over attention-seeking manufacturing, and private fact over common enchantment.
The album’s most “mellow” moments reveal extra confidence than any bombastic manufacturing may obtain.
“I’m most enthusiastic about being reintroduced as, like, oh, he’s nonetheless difficult his fan base,” Bellion mirrored. “He’s nonetheless rising in a route. However now, it’s on a very completely different maturation degree. Plenty of artists don’t develop as a result of they’re consistently placing out content material. So, to listen to this snapshot of Glory Sound Prep after which quick ahead six years to whoever that man is, properly, whoever that man is is probably the most me I believe I’ve ever been—for higher or for worse.”
The album could not convert these in search of The Human Situation’s maximalist pop or radio-ready hooks. That’s by design. Bellion made a document for adults navigating complexity, not youngsters in search of escapism.
The manufacturing serves emotional fact moderately than streaming metrics. The themes look at fatherhood from uncomfortable angles moderately than romanticising the expertise.
Six months after launch, Father Determine stands amongst 2025’s most achieved albums. Not as a result of it chases traits or meets expectations, however as a result of it paperwork real inventive evolution.
Bellion returned from his hiatus with function, ability, and tales value preserving. That is pop music working at its most trustworthy.
