The First Album "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Style

Within this song "Miss America", listeners are placed in a hotel room close to JFK airfield, where Jennifer Walton receives a heartbreaking update that her dad has cancer discovery. This Sunderland-born artist had been touring America for the first time, drumming alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly sadness takes over, tinging everything with melancholy. Unsteady keys and soft strings underscore gothic reports emanating from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Her gentle vocals come across in a flat manner, while the record's intensity arises from the keen writing—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—coupled with surprising maximalism. Not many songs this year possess more potent storytelling style compared to "Shelly", a piece that depicts the killing of a deer and descends into a fuel-soaked reckoning, evoking written pieces illuminated by glimpses of distorted strings. Anxious, quiet verses with echoing, strummed strings move to grand choruses, with Walton's voice electronically altered to become something omniscient and menacing.

Audiences may already know the artist from her work as a music creator, disc jockey, and contributor to bands like Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on her varied background. The opener "Sometimes" erupts in fanfare, like a string band caught unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the tempo via a punishing, stunning, looping drum fill. Dense walls of sound, expertly mixed by a longtime collaborator, feel both gnarly and ethereal, and Walton's dark, enchanted thinking culminate on highlight "Lambs", which briefly transforms into a twirling jig. "May your life never end in death," Walton pleads, exuding poignant dark comedy.