Jennifer Walton's First Record "Daughters" Delves Into Grief and Style
Within this song "Miss America", audiences find themselves in a lodging close to JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton learns a devastating update of her father's cancer discovery. The Sunderland-born artist was touring the US for the first time, drumming with group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly grief takes over, coloring everything in grey. Unsteady piano and hushed orchestration accompany gothic dispatches from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."
Walton's soft vocals are delivered in a flat manner, yet this record's tension arises from her sharp penmanship—blending fiction, folksy sayings, and blunt diary entries—along with unexpected rich textures. Not many tracks recently showcase more potent novelistic style compared to "Shelly", which depicts the death of a deer and spirals into a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking written works illuminated with flickers of distorted cello. Tense, quiet verses with resonating, plucked guitar move into expansive refrains, and her voice digitally manipulated to become a presence omniscient and menacing.
Audiences may already know the artist as a music creator, disc jockey, and contributor in groups such as Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on her varied background. The opener "Sometimes" bursts in fanfare, like an ensemble taken by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM via a punishing, beautiful, repeating drum fill. Thick walls of sound, expertly produced with a long-term collaborator, seem both gnarly and spiritual, and her dark, magical thoughts culminate on standout "Lambs", which momentarily becomes a swirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she pleads, exuding poignant dark comedy.