The First Record "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Style
Within this song "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a hotel room close to JFK airfield, where the musician receives a devastating news of her father's cancer diagnosis. This Sunderland-born performer was traveling America on her initial visit, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly sadness takes over, tinging all with melancholy. Unsteady piano and soft orchestration underscore dark dispatches emanating from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Walton's soft vocals come across in a flat style, while the album's intensity arises from her keen penmanship—blending fiction, traditional phrases, and direct personal notes—coupled with surprising rich textures. Not many songs this year possess stronger novelistic flair compared to "Shelly", which describes the killing of a deer and descends toward a fuel-soaked reckoning, evoking literary pieces illuminated with flickers of warped strings. Tense, subdued sections with resonating, strummed guitar move to grand choruses, with Walton's voice digitally manipulated to become something omniscient and sinister.
Audiences might previously be familiar with the artist from her work as an electronic producer, DJ, and contributor to bands like Caroline. Daughters' sonic turns draw on her diverse background. The opener "Sometimes" bursts with fanfare, as if a string band caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the tempo via a punishing, beautiful, repeating drum fill. Thick layers of audio, skillfully mixed with a longtime collaborator, feel at once gnarly and spiritual, while her morbid, magical thinking culminate in highlight "Lambs", a song that briefly transforms into a swirling dance. "May your life never end in death," she bargains, exuding heart-aching dark comedy.
