The First Album "Daughters" Explores Grief and Style
In the song "Miss America", audiences find themselves inside a lodging close to JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton learns the heartbreaking news of her father's cancer discovery. This Sunderland-born artist had been traveling the US on her initial visit, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly grief takes over, coloring all in grey. Faltering piano and soft strings accompany gothic reports from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Her soft vocals come across in a flat manner, yet the album's tension arises from her sharp writing—blending fiction, folksy sayings, and blunt diary entries—coupled with surprising maximalism. Not many tracks recently showcase stronger storytelling flair compared to "Shelly", which depicts the death of an animal and descends into a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking written works illuminated with flickers of warped cello. Anxious, subdued sections with echoing, strummed guitar transition into grand refrains, and her voice digitally manipulated into something omniscient and menacing.
Listeners might previously know the artist as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor in groups like Caroline. Daughters' musical twists draw on this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, like an ensemble taken by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM with an intense, beautiful, repeating drum fill. Thick walls of sound, expertly produced by a long-term partner, feel both gnarly and spiritual, and her dark, enchanted thinking peak on standout "Lambs", which momentarily becomes a swirling dance. "May your life never end in death," Walton bargains, with poignant gallows humor.
