The First Album "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Elegance

In this track "Miss America", listeners are placed in a lodging near JFK airport, as Jennifer Walton receives a devastating update of her father's cancer diagnosis. This Sunderland-born performer had been touring the US on her initial visit, drumming alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly grief casts a shadow, tinging everything with melancholy. Faltering piano and hushed 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 manner, while this album's tension stems from her keen penmanship—blending fiction, folksy sayings, and blunt diary entries—coupled with surprising rich textures. Few songs this year showcase stronger novelistic style compared to "Shelly", which describes the killing of a deer and spirals toward a fuel-soaked reckoning, evoking literary pieces lit with flickers of distorted strings. Anxious, quiet verses featuring resonating, plucked strings transition to grand choruses, with Walton's vocals electronically altered into a presence all-knowing and sinister.

Audiences might previously know the artist as an electronic producer, DJ, and contributor in groups like Caroline. Daughters' sonic turns reflect this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" bursts in flourish, like a string band taken by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the tempo with an intense, beautiful, repeating percussion. Dense walls of sound, expertly mixed with a long-term collaborator, seem at once gnarly and ethereal, and her morbid, enchanted thinking peak in highlight "Lambs", a song that briefly transforms into a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, exuding heart-aching dark comedy.