The First Album "Daughters" Explores Grief and Style
In the track "Miss America", audiences find themselves in a lodging close to JFK airfield, as the musician receives the heartbreaking news that her dad has illness discovery. This Sunderland-born performer had been touring the US for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly sadness takes over, coloring everything with melancholy. Unsteady piano and soft strings underscore gothic dispatches emanating from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Her soft vocals come across with a deadpan style, yet this record's intensity stems from her keen penmanship—blending fiction, folksy sayings, and blunt diary entries—coupled with surprising rich textures. Not many songs this year possess stronger storytelling style than "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of an animal and descends into a petrol-laden confrontation, evoking literary works illuminated with glimpses of warped strings. Tense, subdued verses with echoing, strummed guitar transition into grand choruses, with her voice digitally manipulated into a presence omniscient and menacing.
Listeners may previously know Walton as a music creator, disc jockey, and member to bands such as Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts in fanfare, as if a string band caught by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the BPM with a punishing, stunning, repeating drum fill. Dense walls of sound, skillfully mixed by a long-term collaborator, feel both rough and ethereal, while her dark, enchanted thinking peak on standout "Lambs", a song that momentarily becomes a twirling dance. "May your life never end in death," she bargains, exuding poignant gallows humor.
