🔗 Share this article

In this song "Miss America", listeners are placed inside a hotel room close to JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton learns a heartbreaking news that her dad has cancer discovery. This Sunderland-born performer had been touring America for the first time, playing alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly sadness casts a shadow, tinging all with melancholy. Faltering keys and hushed strings underscore dark reports emanating from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Walton's gentle vocals come across in a deadpan manner, while this album's intensity stems from the keen penmanship—blending stories, folksy sayings, and blunt personal notes—coupled with unexpected rich textures. Few tracks recently possess more potent novelistic style than "Shelly", a piece that describes the death of an animal and descends into a fuel-soaked reckoning, reminiscent of written pieces lit with glimpses of distorted cello. Tense, quiet verses featuring echoing, strummed guitar move into expansive refrains, and her voice electronically altered to become something omniscient and sinister.

Audiences may already know Walton as a music creator, disc jockey, and member to bands like Caroline. The album's musical twists reflect her varied background. The opener "Sometimes" bursts with fanfare, like a string band taken unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the tempo with a punishing, stunning, looping percussion. Thick layers of audio, expertly mixed with a long-term partner, feel at once gnarly and spiritual, while her dark, magical thinking culminate on standout "Lambs", a song that briefly becomes a swirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she pleads, exuding heart-aching dark comedy.