Jennifer Walton's First Album "Daughters" Delves Into Sorrow and Style
In this song "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a lodging close to JFK airport, where the musician learns a devastating update that her dad has illness discovery. This UK-raised performer was traveling the US for the first time, playing alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly grief takes over, coloring all with melancholy. Unsteady piano and hushed orchestration underscore dark reports from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Walton's gentle vocals are delivered in a deadpan manner, yet this album's tension stems from her keen penmanship—blending fiction, folksy sayings, and direct personal notes—along with unexpected maximalism. Not many songs this year possess more potent novelistic flair compared to "Shelly", which describes the killing of an animal and descends into a petrol-laden confrontation, evoking written pieces lit by flickers of warped strings. Tense, quiet sections featuring echoing, strummed strings move into grand choruses, and her voice digitally manipulated to become a presence omniscient and menacing.
Listeners might previously know the artist as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor in groups such as Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" bursts with flourish, like a string band caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the tempo with an intense, beautiful, looping drum fill. Dense layers of audio, skillfully produced with a longtime partner, feel at once gnarly and spiritual, while her dark, enchanted thinking culminate in highlight "Lambs", which momentarily becomes a twirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, with heart-aching gallows humor.
