Jennifer Walton's First Album "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Style

In this track "Miss America", listeners find themselves in a hotel room near JFK airport, as the musician learns the devastating update of her father's cancer discovery. The Sunderland-born artist had been traveling America on her initial visit, drumming alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly sadness takes over, tinging all with melancholy. Faltering keys and soft strings accompany dark dispatches emanating from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Walton's gentle vocals are delivered with a deadpan style, yet the album's tension stems from her sharp writing—mixing stories, folksy sayings, and direct personal notes—coupled with surprising maximalism. Few songs recently possess stronger novelistic style compared to "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of an animal and descends into a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking written works illuminated with flickers of warped cello. Anxious, quiet verses with echoing, plucked guitar move to grand choruses, with Walton's voice electronically altered to become a presence omniscient and menacing.

Listeners may previously be familiar with Walton from her work as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor in groups such as Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on this varied background. The first track "Sometimes" bursts with flourish, like a string band taken unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the BPM via an intense, stunning, looping percussion. Dense layers of audio, skillfully mixed by a longtime collaborator, seem both gnarly and ethereal, while Walton's morbid, enchanted thoughts peak on highlight "Lambs", a song that briefly transforms into a swirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, with heart-aching gallows humor.