🔗 Share this article

Within this song "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a hotel room close to JFK airfield, as Jennifer Walton receives a heartbreaking update that her dad has illness discovery. This Sunderland-born artist was touring America on her initial visit, drumming alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly sadness casts a shadow, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering piano and hushed orchestration underscore dark dispatches emanating from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Her soft singing come across with a flat style, while the album's intensity stems from the keen penmanship—mixing stories, folksy sayings, and direct personal notes—coupled with unexpected maximalism. Few songs this year showcase more potent novelistic flair than "Shelly", which describes the killing of a deer and spirals into a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking written pieces illuminated with glimpses of warped cello. Tense, subdued sections with resonating, plucked strings move to expansive choruses, with her vocals electronically altered to become a presence omniscient and sinister.

Listeners might previously know the artist as a music creator, DJ, and member in groups like Caroline. Daughters' sonic turns draw on her diverse background. The opener "Sometimes" erupts in fanfare, as if an ensemble caught unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM with an intense, beautiful, looping percussion. Thick layers of audio, skillfully produced with a longtime collaborator, seem both gnarly and spiritual, and Walton's morbid, magical thinking peak in standout "Lambs", which briefly transforms into a swirling dance. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, exuding poignant gallows humor.