The Debut Record "Daughters" Delves Into Sorrow and Style
Within the song "Miss America", listeners are placed inside a hotel room near JFK airport, where the musician receives the heartbreaking news that her dad has illness diagnosis. This UK-raised artist was traveling the US for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly grief casts a shadow, tinging everything in grey. Faltering keys and soft orchestration accompany dark dispatches from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Her soft singing come across in a deadpan style, yet the album's tension stems from her keen writing—mixing fiction, folksy sayings, and blunt personal notes—coupled with surprising rich textures. Few tracks recently possess more potent novelistic style compared to "Shelly", which describes the killing of a deer and spirals toward a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking literary pieces lit with glimpses of distorted cello. Anxious, quiet sections featuring echoing, strummed strings move into expansive refrains, with her vocals digitally manipulated to become a presence all-knowing and menacing.
Audiences may previously know the artist as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and member to bands like Caroline. Daughters' sonic turns reflect her diverse background. The first track "Sometimes" bursts with fanfare, like a string band taken unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the tempo via an intense, stunning, looping drum fill. Dense walls of sound, skillfully produced with a longtime partner, feel both rough and spiritual, and her morbid, enchanted thinking peak in highlight "Lambs", which momentarily transforms into a swirling dance. "May your life never end in death," Walton pleads, exuding heart-aching gallows humor.
