🔗 Share this article The Debut Record "Daughters" Explores Sorrow and Elegance In this song "Miss America", audiences find themselves inside a hotel room close to JFK airport, as the musician receives the devastating update that her dad has cancer diagnosis. The Sunderland-born performer had been touring America for the first time, drumming with group Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly sadness takes over, tinging everything with melancholy. Faltering piano and soft orchestration accompany dark dispatches from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments." Walton's soft vocals are delivered with a deadpan style, while this record's intensity stems from the keen writing—mixing stories, traditional phrases, and direct personal notes—coupled with unexpected maximalism. Not many songs recently showcase stronger novelistic flair than "Shelly", a piece that depicts the death of an animal and spirals into a fuel-soaked confrontation, reminiscent of written pieces illuminated with flickers of warped strings. Tense, quiet verses with resonating, strummed strings transition to expansive choruses, with her vocals digitally manipulated to become something all-knowing and menacing. Audiences may previously know the artist from her work as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and member in groups such as Caroline. The album's musical twists reflect her varied career. The opener "Sometimes" bursts with flourish, like a string band taken by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM via an intense, beautiful, looping drum fill. Thick layers of audio, skillfully produced with a longtime collaborator, feel at once gnarly and ethereal, and her morbid, enchanted thoughts culminate on standout "Lambs", a song that momentarily becomes a swirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she bargains, exuding heart-aching dark comedy.