Jennifer Walton's First Record "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Elegance
Within this song "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a hotel room near JFK airfield, where the musician receives a heartbreaking update that her dad has illness diagnosis. The UK-raised performer had been touring America on her initial visit, drumming alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly sadness casts a shadow, coloring everything in grey. Faltering piano and hushed strings accompany gothic dispatches emanating from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Her gentle vocals come across in a deadpan manner, while this album's tension arises from her keen penmanship—mixing fiction, folksy sayings, and direct personal notes—coupled with unexpected rich textures. Few tracks this year possess stronger novelistic flair compared to "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of a deer and descends into a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking literary works illuminated by glimpses of distorted strings. Tense, subdued verses with resonating, strummed strings move into expansive refrains, with her vocals electronically altered into something all-knowing and sinister.
Audiences might previously know Walton from her work as a music creator, DJ, and contributor to bands such as Caroline. Daughters' sonic turns draw on her varied background. The first track "Sometimes" bursts with flourish, as if a string band caught unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the BPM via an intense, beautiful, repeating percussion. Thick layers of audio, skillfully produced by a long-term collaborator, feel both rough and ethereal, while Walton's dark, enchanted thinking peak on standout "Lambs", a song that briefly transforms into a swirling dance. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, exuding heart-aching gallows humor.
