The Belt by In the Valley Below

The Belt, the debut album from In the Valley Below, was made about as close to home as a record can be: Jeffrey Jacob Mendel and Angela Gail Mattson cut it in their own home studio, engineering and producing it themselves and mixing two of the tracks, then handing the rest to outside mixers including Dave Sardy, whose résumé runs to Oasis. The band traces its roots to Grand Rapids, Michigan, but came together in Echo Park, California, in 2011.

The sound is moody and stylish, Mattson's keyboards and Mendel's guitar circling two voices that trade lines and blend like partners in a slow dance. "Peaches" was the breakout, a slinky come-on that took its time finding an audience and climbed to 18 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart in 2016.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.