The First Album "Daughters" Explores Grief and Elegance

In this song "Miss America", listeners are placed in a lodging near JFK airport, where the musician learns the devastating news that her dad has cancer discovery. This UK-raised performer was traveling America on her initial visit, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly grief takes over, coloring all with melancholy. Unsteady keys and hushed strings accompany dark reports from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Walton's gentle singing are delivered with a flat style, yet this record's tension arises from the keen penmanship—mixing stories, folksy sayings, and blunt diary entries—coupled with unexpected rich textures. Few songs this year possess stronger storytelling flair compared to "Shelly", which describes the killing of an animal and spirals toward a petrol-laden confrontation, evoking literary pieces illuminated with flickers of warped cello. Anxious, subdued verses with echoing, plucked guitar transition into grand refrains, with her vocals electronically altered to become a presence omniscient and sinister.

Listeners might already know Walton as a music creator, DJ, and contributor to bands such as Caroline. Daughters' sonic turns draw on this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts in fanfare, like a string band caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM via a punishing, stunning, repeating drum fill. Thick layers of audio, skillfully mixed with a long-term collaborator, seem both gnarly and ethereal, while her morbid, enchanted thinking peak on standout "Lambs", a song that briefly becomes a twirling dance. "May your life never end in death," Walton bargains, exuding poignant gallows humor.