The First Album "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Elegance
In the track "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a hotel room close to JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton receives a devastating update of her father's cancer diagnosis. This Sunderland-born artist was traveling the US on her initial visit, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly sadness takes over, coloring everything with melancholy. Unsteady keys and soft strings accompany dark reports emanating from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Walton's gentle vocals are delivered with a flat manner, yet the record's tension stems from the sharp writing—mixing stories, traditional phrases, and direct diary entries—coupled with surprising rich textures. Not many tracks this year possess more potent novelistic flair than "Shelly", which depicts the killing of a deer and descends toward a petrol-laden confrontation, reminiscent of literary pieces lit by glimpses of warped strings. Tense, quiet sections with resonating, strummed strings move to expansive refrains, and Walton's vocals digitally manipulated to become a presence omniscient and sinister.
Audiences may already know the artist as an electronic producer, DJ, and member to bands like Caroline. Daughters' musical twists reflect her diverse background. The opener "Sometimes" erupts in flourish, as if an ensemble caught by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM with an intense, beautiful, looping drum fill. Thick walls of sound, expertly mixed by a longtime collaborator, feel at once gnarly and spiritual, while her dark, enchanted thinking peak in standout "Lambs", which momentarily transforms into a twirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," Walton bargains, with heart-aching gallows humor.
