The First Album "Daughters" Explores Grief and Elegance
In this track "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a lodging near JFK airport, as the musician learns the devastating update of her father's illness discovery. The UK-raised artist had been traveling the US for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly grief takes over, tinging all with melancholy. Unsteady piano and hushed orchestration accompany gothic reports emanating from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Her gentle singing are delivered with a flat manner, while this record's intensity arises from the keen penmanship—blending fiction, traditional phrases, and direct diary entries—coupled with unexpected rich textures. Not many songs this year possess stronger storytelling style compared to "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of a deer and descends into a fuel-soaked reckoning, evoking written works lit with glimpses of warped cello. Anxious, subdued sections with echoing, plucked strings move into grand choruses, and Walton's vocals digitally manipulated into something omniscient and sinister.
Audiences may previously know Walton as a music creator, DJ, and member in groups like Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on her diverse career. The first track "Sometimes" bursts with flourish, as if a string band taken by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the tempo via a punishing, beautiful, looping drum fill. Thick walls of sound, expertly mixed with a long-term collaborator, seem at once rough and ethereal, and her dark, magical thinking peak in highlight "Lambs", a song that briefly becomes a swirling jig. "May your life never end in death," Walton pleads, with heart-aching gallows humor.
