The First Album "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Elegance
Within the song "Miss America", audiences are placed in a lodging close to JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton receives a devastating update that her dad has cancer diagnosis. The UK-raised performer was traveling America for the first time, drumming with group Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly sadness takes over, tinging everything with melancholy. Unsteady keys and soft strings underscore dark reports from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Her soft vocals are delivered in a deadpan manner, while this album's tension stems from the keen writing—mixing stories, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—along with unexpected rich textures. Not many songs recently possess more potent storytelling flair compared to "Shelly", a piece that describes the death of an animal and spirals into a fuel-soaked reckoning, evoking written works illuminated by flickers of distorted cello. Anxious, subdued sections with resonating, strummed strings transition into grand refrains, and her voice digitally manipulated into a presence all-knowing and sinister.
Listeners may already know Walton as a music creator, disc jockey, and contributor to bands like Caroline. Daughters' musical twists draw on this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, like an ensemble taken by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the tempo via an intense, beautiful, looping percussion. Thick layers of audio, expertly mixed with a long-term collaborator, seem at once rough and spiritual, and Walton's morbid, magical thinking culminate on highlight "Lambs", which briefly transforms into a twirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, exuding poignant dark comedy.
