The First Album "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Style
Within this track "Miss America", audiences find themselves in a lodging close to JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton receives the devastating news of her father's cancer discovery. This UK-raised performer had been touring the US on her initial visit, drumming alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly sadness casts a shadow, coloring everything with melancholy. Unsteady piano and soft orchestration underscore dark reports from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Walton's gentle singing come across with a flat style, while the record's intensity arises from her sharp penmanship—blending fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt personal notes—along with surprising rich textures. Few songs recently possess stronger novelistic style compared to "Shelly", a piece that depicts the killing of a deer and descends into a petrol-laden confrontation, evoking literary works illuminated with flickers of warped strings. Tense, quiet verses featuring resonating, strummed strings transition into expansive choruses, and her vocals electronically altered into a presence omniscient and sinister.
Audiences may already know Walton as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor to bands such as Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on her varied background. The opener "Sometimes" erupts with flourish, like an ensemble caught unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM with a punishing, beautiful, repeating percussion. Dense layers of audio, skillfully mixed by a long-term partner, feel at once gnarly and spiritual, while Walton's dark, enchanted thoughts culminate on highlight "Lambs", which briefly becomes a swirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, with heart-aching dark comedy.