The Debut Album "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Elegance

In this track "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a hotel room close to JFK airfield, where Jennifer Walton receives the heartbreaking news that her dad has illness diagnosis. The UK-raised artist had been traveling America for the first time, playing with group Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly sadness casts a shadow, tinging everything with melancholy. Unsteady piano and hushed orchestration accompany gothic dispatches from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Her soft singing come across in a flat style, while the album's tension arises from the sharp writing—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—along with unexpected maximalism. Few tracks this year possess more potent storytelling style than "Shelly", which describes the death of a deer and descends toward a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking literary works lit with flickers of distorted strings. Tense, quiet verses with echoing, strummed guitar move into expansive refrains, and her voice electronically altered to become something all-knowing and sinister.

Audiences may already be familiar with Walton as an electronic producer, DJ, and member in groups like Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on her diverse career. The opener "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, as if a string band caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM via an intense, beautiful, looping percussion. Dense layers of audio, expertly produced by a long-term partner, seem at once rough and ethereal, and her morbid, magical thoughts peak on standout "Lambs", a song that momentarily transforms into a swirling dance. "May your life never end in death," Walton pleads, with heart-aching dark comedy.