Jennifer Walton's First Album "Daughters" Delves Into Sorrow and Style
In the track "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a lodging near JFK airfield, as Jennifer Walton learns a devastating update of her father's illness discovery. This Sunderland-born artist had been touring the US on her initial visit, drumming with group Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly grief casts a shadow, tinging all with melancholy. Faltering piano and soft orchestration accompany gothic dispatches emanating from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Walton's soft singing are delivered with a flat style, while the record's intensity stems from her keen writing—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—along with surprising maximalism. Few songs recently showcase more potent storytelling style compared to "Shelly", which describes the death of an animal and spirals toward a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking written pieces lit by flickers of warped strings. Tense, subdued verses with echoing, plucked strings move into expansive choruses, with Walton's vocals digitally manipulated into a presence all-knowing and menacing.
Audiences might previously know the artist from her work as a music creator, disc jockey, and member in groups such as Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on this varied background. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with flourish, as if a string band caught by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the tempo with a punishing, stunning, looping percussion. Dense layers of audio, skillfully mixed by a longtime partner, seem both rough and ethereal, and her dark, enchanted thinking culminate on highlight "Lambs", a song that momentarily becomes a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, exuding poignant gallows humor.
