The First Record "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Style
Within this track "Miss America", listeners are placed in a lodging near JFK airport, as the musician receives the devastating news that her dad has cancer diagnosis. This Sunderland-born performer had been traveling America for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly grief casts a shadow, tinging everything with melancholy. Unsteady piano and soft orchestration accompany dark reports from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Her soft singing are delivered with a deadpan style, while this album's tension arises from her keen penmanship—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt personal notes—coupled with surprising maximalism. Not many songs recently possess stronger novelistic flair compared to "Shelly", which depicts the death of an animal and spirals toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking written works lit by glimpses of distorted cello. Tense, subdued verses featuring echoing, strummed guitar transition to expansive refrains, with Walton's voice electronically altered into something omniscient and menacing.
Listeners might previously be familiar with Walton from her work as an electronic producer, DJ, and contributor in groups like Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on her diverse career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, as if an ensemble taken by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM via an intense, beautiful, looping drum fill. Dense walls of sound, skillfully mixed with a longtime partner, feel at once rough and ethereal, while Walton's dark, magical thoughts peak on highlight "Lambs", which momentarily transforms into a twirling dance. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, exuding heart-aching gallows humor.
