The First Record "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Elegance

Within this track "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a lodging near JFK airfield, where Jennifer Walton receives a heartbreaking update of her father's illness discovery. This Sunderland-born artist was traveling the US for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly sadness casts a shadow, tinging everything with melancholy. Unsteady piano and soft orchestration accompany dark reports from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's gentle vocals come across in a flat style, yet the album's intensity arises from her keen writing—blending fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—along with surprising rich textures. Not many tracks this year showcase more potent storytelling style compared to "Shelly", a piece that describes the death of a deer and spirals into a petrol-laden confrontation, evoking literary pieces lit with flickers of distorted cello. Anxious, quiet verses featuring resonating, strummed guitar move into expansive choruses, with Walton's vocals electronically altered to become something omniscient and sinister.

Audiences might previously be familiar with the artist as an electronic producer, DJ, and member in groups such as Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on her diverse background. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with flourish, as if an ensemble taken unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the BPM with a punishing, stunning, looping drum fill. Thick walls of sound, skillfully mixed with a longtime partner, seem both rough and spiritual, while her dark, enchanted thinking culminate on standout "Lambs", a song that briefly becomes a swirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, with poignant gallows humor.

Michael Roberts
Michael Roberts

Wildlife biologist and conservationist with a passion for sloth research and environmental advocacy.