Jennifer Walton's First Record "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Style
Within the song "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a lodging close to JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton receives the heartbreaking update that her dad has illness discovery. This UK-raised performer was touring America on her initial visit, drumming alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly sadness takes over, tinging everything with melancholy. Unsteady piano and hushed strings accompany dark reports emanating from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Her gentle vocals come across in a deadpan manner, while this record's tension arises from the sharp writing—blending fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt personal notes—coupled with surprising rich textures. Not many songs recently showcase stronger novelistic flair than "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of a deer and spirals into a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking literary pieces lit with glimpses of distorted cello. Anxious, subdued verses with resonating, plucked strings move into expansive choruses, with her vocals electronically altered into something all-knowing and sinister.
Listeners might previously know Walton as a music creator, disc jockey, and member in groups such as Caroline. The album's sonic turns reflect her diverse career. The opener "Sometimes" bursts with fanfare, like a string band taken unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the tempo via an intense, stunning, repeating drum fill. Thick walls of sound, expertly mixed by a longtime collaborator, feel both rough and ethereal, while her morbid, magical thinking culminate in highlight "Lambs", a song that briefly becomes a twirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," Walton pleads, exuding heart-aching gallows humor.
