The Debut Album "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Elegance
In this track "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a lodging close to JFK airfield, as the musician learns a devastating news that her dad has cancer diagnosis. The Sunderland-born artist had been touring the US for the first time, drumming with indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly grief takes over, tinging everything in grey. Unsteady piano and soft strings accompany gothic reports from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Her gentle vocals come across with a deadpan style, yet this album's intensity stems from the keen penmanship—blending stories, traditional phrases, and blunt personal notes—along with unexpected maximalism. Not many tracks this year showcase stronger storytelling style than "Shelly", which describes the death of a deer and spirals into a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking literary works lit with glimpses of distorted cello. Anxious, quiet verses featuring resonating, strummed strings transition to grand choruses, with her voice electronically altered into a presence omniscient and menacing.
Audiences may previously know Walton as a music creator, DJ, and member to bands such as Caroline. Daughters' musical twists reflect this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with flourish, as if an ensemble caught unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM via an intense, stunning, looping drum fill. Dense walls of sound, skillfully produced by a long-term collaborator, seem at once gnarly and spiritual, while her morbid, enchanted thoughts peak on standout "Lambs", a song that momentarily transforms into a twirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, with poignant gallows humor.
