🔗 Share this article

Within this song "Miss America", audiences find themselves in a lodging near JFK airport, as Jennifer Walton learns the devastating news of her father's illness discovery. This Sunderland-born artist was touring the US for the first time, drumming with indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly sadness takes over, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering keys and hushed strings accompany gothic dispatches from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Her gentle vocals are delivered with a deadpan manner, yet this album's tension stems from her keen writing—mixing stories, folksy sayings, and direct personal notes—coupled with unexpected rich textures. Not many tracks this year showcase more potent storytelling flair compared to "Shelly", a piece that depicts the killing of a deer and spirals into a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking literary works illuminated with glimpses of warped cello. Anxious, subdued verses with resonating, strummed guitar move into expansive choruses, and her voice digitally manipulated into something omniscient and menacing.

Audiences may already know the artist as a music creator, disc jockey, and member in groups such as Caroline. The album's musical twists reflect this diverse background. The first track "Sometimes" erupts in flourish, as if a string band caught unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the tempo via a punishing, stunning, looping percussion. Dense layers of audio, skillfully produced by a long-term collaborator, seem at once gnarly and spiritual, while Walton's morbid, enchanted thinking peak in highlight "Lambs", a song that momentarily becomes a twirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she bargains, with poignant dark comedy.