Jennifer Walton's Debut Record "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Style

Within this track "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a hotel room near JFK airfield, where Jennifer Walton learns a heartbreaking news that her dad has cancer diagnosis. This UK-raised performer was touring the US for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly grief casts a shadow, coloring everything with melancholy. Unsteady piano and soft strings underscore dark dispatches from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's gentle vocals are delivered in a flat manner, yet the album's intensity stems from the keen penmanship—mixing stories, folksy sayings, and blunt diary entries—coupled with unexpected maximalism. Few songs this year possess stronger novelistic style than "Shelly", which describes the killing of a deer and descends into a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking written pieces illuminated by flickers of distorted strings. Tense, subdued sections featuring resonating, strummed guitar transition into grand choruses, with Walton's voice digitally manipulated to become something omniscient and menacing.

Listeners may already know the artist as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor in groups such as Caroline. The album's musical twists reflect this varied background. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, like a string band taken by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM via an intense, beautiful, looping drum fill. Dense walls of sound, expertly mixed by a long-term collaborator, seem at once gnarly and spiritual, and her dark, enchanted thoughts peak on highlight "Lambs", a song that momentarily transforms into a twirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she pleads, with poignant gallows humor.

Gary Davis
Gary Davis

A passionate fashion enthusiast and writer, sharing insights on style and culture from a Canadian perspective.

July 2025 Blog Roll