The Debut Album "Daughters" Explores Grief and Style

Within this track "Miss America", audiences find themselves inside a lodging near JFK airfield, as Jennifer Walton learns the heartbreaking update that her dad has cancer discovery. The Sunderland-born performer was touring the US on her initial visit, playing with indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly sadness casts a shadow, coloring everything with melancholy. Unsteady keys and hushed strings accompany gothic reports emanating from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Walton's gentle vocals come across in a flat manner, yet the album's intensity stems from her sharp writing—blending stories, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—along with surprising maximalism. Few tracks recently possess more potent storytelling style compared to "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of a deer and spirals into a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking literary pieces illuminated by glimpses of warped strings. Anxious, quiet sections with echoing, plucked guitar transition to expansive refrains, with her vocals electronically altered to become a presence omniscient and menacing.

Listeners might previously know Walton from her work as a music creator, DJ, and member to bands like Caroline. The album's musical twists reflect this varied background. The first track "Sometimes" erupts in flourish, as if an ensemble taken unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the tempo with a punishing, stunning, looping drum fill. Thick layers of audio, expertly mixed by a long-term partner, seem both rough and spiritual, and her dark, magical thinking peak in highlight "Lambs", which momentarily transforms into a swirling dance. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, with heart-aching gallows humor.