The First Record "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Style
Within the track "Miss America", audiences are placed in a lodging near JFK airport, as Jennifer Walton receives the devastating update that her dad has cancer diagnosis. This Sunderland-born artist had been traveling the US for the first time, drumming alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly grief casts a shadow, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering keys and hushed strings accompany gothic reports emanating from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Her gentle singing are delivered in a flat manner, while the record's intensity arises from her keen penmanship—mixing fiction, folksy sayings, and blunt diary entries—along with surprising maximalism. Few songs this year possess stronger novelistic style than "Shelly", a piece that describes the death of an animal and spirals toward a petrol-laden confrontation, reminiscent of literary pieces lit by glimpses of distorted cello. Tense, subdued verses featuring resonating, plucked strings transition to grand choruses, and her voice electronically altered into a presence omniscient and sinister.
Audiences might already be familiar with the artist as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor to bands such as Caroline. Daughters' sonic turns reflect her diverse career. The opener "Sometimes" erupts with flourish, as if an ensemble caught by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM with a punishing, stunning, looping drum fill. Dense walls of sound, expertly mixed with a long-term collaborator, feel both rough and ethereal, while her morbid, enchanted thinking peak on highlight "Lambs", a song that momentarily transforms into a twirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she bargains, exuding heart-aching gallows humor.
