🔗 Share this article

In this song "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a hotel room near JFK airfield, where the musician learns a devastating update that her dad has cancer diagnosis. This UK-raised artist had been touring America for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly grief casts a shadow, tinging everything with melancholy. Unsteady keys and soft strings accompany gothic dispatches emanating from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Her soft singing come across with a flat style, while the record's intensity arises from the keen penmanship—mixing stories, traditional phrases, and direct personal notes—along with surprising maximalism. Not many tracks this year showcase stronger storytelling flair compared to "Shelly", which describes the killing of a deer and descends toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking literary works lit by glimpses of distorted strings. Tense, quiet verses with resonating, strummed guitar move into expansive refrains, with her vocals electronically altered into a presence all-knowing and menacing.

Listeners may previously know the artist from her work as a music creator, disc jockey, and contributor to bands like Caroline. Daughters' musical twists reflect her diverse career. The first track "Sometimes" bursts in flourish, as if a string band caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM with an intense, stunning, repeating percussion. Dense layers of audio, expertly mixed by a long-term partner, seem both rough and spiritual, and Walton's dark, magical thoughts culminate on standout "Lambs", which briefly becomes a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she pleads, exuding heart-aching gallows humor.