Jennifer Walton's Debut Album "Daughters" Explores Grief and Style
In this song "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a lodging near JFK airfield, where the musician learns the heartbreaking update of her father's cancer diagnosis. This Sunderland-born performer was traveling America on her initial visit, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly sadness casts a shadow, tinging all with melancholy. Unsteady keys and hushed strings underscore gothic dispatches from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Walton's gentle vocals are delivered with a flat manner, yet this record's tension stems from her sharp penmanshipâmixing stories, folksy sayings, and blunt personal notesâcoupled with unexpected maximalism. Not many songs recently possess more potent novelistic style than "Shelly", which describes the death of an animal and spirals toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking literary works lit by flickers of warped cello. Tense, quiet verses featuring resonating, plucked guitar transition to expansive refrains, with her voice electronically altered into a presence all-knowing and menacing.
Listeners might already be familiar with the artist from her work as an electronic producer, DJ, and contributor to bands like Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on her varied background. The first track "Sometimes" bursts in fanfare, like an ensemble caught by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM via a punishing, stunning, looping percussion. Thick walls of sound, skillfully produced by a long-term partner, feel at once rough and spiritual, and her dark, magical thinking peak in highlight "Lambs", which momentarily transforms into a twirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, with poignant gallows humor.