🔗 Share this article Jennifer Walton's First Album "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Elegance Within this song "Miss America", audiences find themselves in a lodging near JFK airfield, where Jennifer Walton learns a heartbreaking update that her dad has cancer diagnosis. This UK-raised artist had been traveling America for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly sadness casts a shadow, tinging all with melancholy. Faltering keys and hushed orchestration underscore dark reports emanating from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks." Walton's soft singing are delivered with a deadpan style, while this album's tension stems from her keen penmanship—mixing stories, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—along with unexpected maximalism. Few songs recently possess more potent novelistic style than "Shelly", which describes the death of an animal and descends toward a petrol-laden confrontation, reminiscent of written works illuminated by flickers of distorted cello. Tense, subdued verses with echoing, strummed guitar move into expansive choruses, and her voice digitally manipulated to become something omniscient and menacing. Listeners might previously know Walton from her work as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor to bands like Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on this diverse career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts in flourish, as if an ensemble caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the BPM with a punishing, beautiful, looping percussion. Dense walls of sound, expertly produced by a long-term collaborator, feel both rough and ethereal, and Walton's dark, enchanted thinking peak in standout "Lambs", a song that momentarily transforms into a twirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," Walton bargains, exuding heart-aching dark comedy.