Jennifer Walton's First Album "Daughters" Explores Grief and Style
In this song "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a hotel room close to JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton learns the devastating update that her dad has illness diagnosis. This Sunderland-born performer had been touring America for the first time, drumming with group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly grief casts a shadow, coloring all in grey. Unsteady piano and hushed strings accompany dark dispatches from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Her gentle vocals come across with a flat manner, yet the record's tension stems from the sharp writing—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—coupled with unexpected rich textures. Not many songs this year possess stronger storytelling flair than "Shelly", a piece that depicts the killing of an animal and descends toward a petrol-laden reckoning, reminiscent of written works lit with glimpses of distorted strings. Anxious, quiet sections with echoing, plucked strings move into grand refrains, and her vocals digitally manipulated into something omniscient and menacing.
Listeners may already know Walton from her work as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and member to bands like Caroline. The album's musical twists reflect this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" bursts with fanfare, like an ensemble caught unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM via an intense, beautiful, looping drum fill. Thick walls of sound, expertly mixed by a long-term partner, seem both rough and spiritual, while Walton's morbid, enchanted thinking culminate in highlight "Lambs", a song that briefly becomes a twirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, exuding poignant dark comedy.
