The First Album "Daughters" Explores Grief and Elegance
Within the track "Miss America", audiences find themselves inside a hotel room near JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton learns a devastating news that her dad has cancer discovery. The UK-raised performer had been touring America for the first time, playing alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly grief casts a shadow, coloring everything in grey. Unsteady piano and soft orchestration accompany dark reports emanating from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Walton's soft vocals come across with a deadpan manner, while the album's intensity arises from the keen writing—blending stories, folksy sayings, and direct personal notes—along with unexpected rich textures. Not many tracks recently possess stronger novelistic style than "Shelly", a piece that depicts the killing of a deer and descends toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking written works illuminated with glimpses of distorted cello. Anxious, subdued verses with resonating, plucked strings move into grand choruses, and her voice electronically altered into a presence all-knowing and sinister.
Listeners might already know the artist from her work as an electronic producer, DJ, and member in groups such as Caroline. The album's sonic turns reflect her varied background. The opener "Sometimes" bursts in fanfare, as if a string band taken unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the tempo with an intense, beautiful, repeating drum fill. Dense layers of audio, skillfully produced by a long-term partner, feel both gnarly and spiritual, and Walton's dark, enchanted thinking peak on standout "Lambs", a song that briefly becomes a twirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, exuding poignant dark comedy.
