The First Album "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Style
Within the track "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a hotel room near JFK airfield, where Jennifer Walton receives a devastating news that her dad has illness diagnosis. This Sunderland-born performer was traveling the US on her initial visit, playing alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly grief casts a shadow, tinging everything with melancholy. Faltering piano and soft orchestration accompany dark reports emanating from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Walton's soft vocals come across in a deadpan manner, yet this album's tension arises from the keen writing—blending stories, folksy sayings, and direct diary entries—along with surprising rich textures. Few tracks this year possess more potent novelistic flair than "Shelly", which depicts the killing of a deer and spirals into a petrol-laden reckoning, reminiscent of written pieces illuminated by glimpses of warped strings. Anxious, quiet verses with echoing, plucked guitar transition to grand refrains, and her voice electronically altered to become something omniscient and sinister.
Audiences may already know the artist as a music creator, DJ, and contributor in groups like Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on this varied career. The opener "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, as if an ensemble taken unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the tempo with a punishing, beautiful, repeating percussion. Thick layers of audio, skillfully produced by a longtime partner, seem both rough and spiritual, and her morbid, magical thinking peak on highlight "Lambs", which momentarily transforms into a twirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she pleads, with heart-aching gallows humor.
