🔗 Share this article

Within this track "Miss America", listeners find themselves in a lodging close to JFK airport, as Jennifer Walton receives a heartbreaking news of her father's cancer discovery. This UK-raised performer had been touring America for the first time, playing alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly grief takes over, tinging everything with melancholy. Faltering keys and hushed orchestration accompany dark dispatches from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's gentle vocals are delivered in a flat manner, while the record's tension arises from the keen penmanship—blending stories, folksy sayings, and blunt personal notes—coupled with surprising maximalism. Not many tracks recently possess more potent novelistic flair than "Shelly", a piece that describes the death of a deer and descends into a fuel-soaked reckoning, reminiscent of literary works lit by glimpses of distorted strings. Tense, subdued verses with resonating, plucked strings transition into grand choruses, with her voice digitally manipulated to become a presence omniscient and menacing.

Audiences might already be familiar with Walton as an electronic producer, DJ, and member to bands like Caroline. The album's sonic turns reflect her varied career. The opener "Sometimes" erupts in flourish, like a string band caught unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the BPM with an intense, stunning, repeating percussion. Dense layers of audio, skillfully mixed with a longtime collaborator, seem at once rough and ethereal, while her morbid, magical thoughts culminate in standout "Lambs", a song that briefly transforms into a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, exuding heart-aching dark comedy.