🔗 Share this article

Within this track "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a hotel room close to JFK airport, as Jennifer Walton learns a devastating update that her dad has illness diagnosis. This UK-raised performer was touring America on her initial visit, drumming with group Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly grief casts a shadow, tinging everything in grey. Unsteady keys and hushed orchestration accompany dark dispatches from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's gentle vocals come across in a flat manner, yet the record's intensity stems from her keen penmanship—mixing stories, traditional phrases, and blunt personal notes—along with unexpected rich textures. Not many songs recently showcase stronger storytelling flair compared to "Shelly", a piece that depicts the killing of an animal and spirals toward a petrol-laden confrontation, evoking written pieces lit with flickers of warped cello. Tense, quiet sections featuring resonating, plucked strings move into expansive refrains, with Walton's voice digitally manipulated into a presence omniscient and sinister.

Audiences may previously know Walton as a music creator, disc jockey, and contributor to bands like Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on her diverse career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, as if an ensemble caught by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM via a punishing, stunning, looping percussion. Thick walls of sound, expertly produced with a long-term partner, seem both gnarly and ethereal, and her dark, magical thoughts peak in standout "Lambs", a song that briefly becomes a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she pleads, exuding poignant gallows humor.