Jennifer Walton's First Record "Daughters" Delves Into Sorrow and Elegance
In this track "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a lodging close to JFK airfield, where Jennifer Walton learns a devastating news that her dad has cancer diagnosis. The UK-raised artist was traveling America for the first time, drumming with indie band Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly grief casts a shadow, coloring all with melancholy. Faltering keys and soft orchestration underscore dark reports from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Her soft vocals are delivered in a flat manner, while the record's intensity stems from the keen penmanship—mixing stories, traditional phrases, and direct personal notes—along with unexpected maximalism. Few tracks this year possess more potent novelistic style than "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of a deer and spirals into a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking written pieces illuminated with glimpses of warped cello. Anxious, quiet sections with echoing, strummed guitar move to expansive choruses, and Walton's vocals electronically altered into a presence omniscient and sinister.
Listeners might already know Walton as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and member to bands like Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on her diverse background. The first track "Sometimes" erupts in flourish, like an ensemble taken unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the tempo via an intense, beautiful, repeating percussion. Dense walls of sound, expertly produced by a longtime partner, feel at once rough and ethereal, and Walton's morbid, magical thinking peak on standout "Lambs", which briefly becomes a twirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," Walton bargains, with poignant dark comedy.
