The First Record "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Elegance
Within this track "Miss America", audiences find themselves inside a lodging near JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton receives the heartbreaking update that her dad has illness diagnosis. The Sunderland-born performer was traveling the US on her initial visit, drumming alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly sadness casts a shadow, tinging everything with melancholy. Unsteady piano and soft orchestration underscore gothic reports from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Her gentle singing come across with a deadpan style, yet the album's tension arises from the sharp penmanship—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—along with unexpected rich textures. Not many tracks recently possess more potent novelistic flair than "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of a deer and spirals toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking written pieces illuminated with glimpses of distorted strings. Anxious, subdued sections featuring echoing, plucked strings transition to expansive choruses, with her voice digitally manipulated into something all-knowing and menacing.
Audiences might previously be familiar with the artist from her work as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor to bands like Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on her diverse background. The opener "Sometimes" bursts in fanfare, like a string band caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM with a punishing, stunning, looping drum fill. Thick layers of audio, skillfully produced with a long-term partner, feel at once rough and ethereal, and Walton's morbid, magical thinking culminate on highlight "Lambs", a song that momentarily transforms into a swirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, with poignant dark comedy.