The First Album "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Style

Within the track "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a hotel room close to JFK airport, as Jennifer Walton receives a heartbreaking update of her father's cancer discovery. The Sunderland-born performer was traveling America for the first time, playing with group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly sadness casts a shadow, tinging everything in grey. Faltering piano and hushed orchestration accompany gothic reports emanating from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's soft vocals come across with a flat style, while this album's intensity stems from her keen writing—mixing stories, traditional phrases, and blunt personal notes—coupled with unexpected rich textures. Few tracks recently possess stronger novelistic style than "Shelly", a piece that describes the death of an animal and descends toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking literary pieces lit with glimpses of distorted cello. Anxious, subdued sections featuring resonating, strummed guitar move into grand choruses, and Walton's voice electronically altered to become a presence all-knowing and menacing.

Audiences might previously be familiar with the artist as a music creator, DJ, and contributor in groups like Caroline. Daughters' musical twists reflect her diverse background. The opener "Sometimes" erupts with flourish, like an ensemble taken unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the tempo with an intense, stunning, repeating drum fill. Dense walls of sound, expertly mixed with a long-term partner, seem both rough and spiritual, and Walton's dark, enchanted thinking peak in standout "Lambs", a song that momentarily transforms into a swirling jig. "May your life never end in death," Walton bargains, exuding poignant gallows humor.