🔗 Share this article

Within this track "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a lodging near JFK airfield, where Jennifer Walton learns the devastating update of her father's cancer diagnosis. This UK-raised performer was touring America for the first time, playing with group Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly grief takes over, tinging everything with melancholy. Unsteady keys and soft orchestration accompany gothic dispatches emanating from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's soft singing come across in a flat manner, while the record's tension stems from her keen writing—blending stories, traditional phrases, and direct personal notes—coupled with unexpected rich textures. Few tracks this year showcase stronger novelistic flair than "Shelly", which depicts the killing of an animal and spirals toward a fuel-soaked reckoning, reminiscent of literary pieces lit with flickers of distorted strings. Anxious, quiet verses featuring resonating, strummed strings move to expansive refrains, with her vocals electronically altered into a presence all-knowing and sinister.

Audiences may already be familiar with the artist as an electronic producer, DJ, and member in groups such as Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with flourish, like a string band caught unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the tempo with a punishing, stunning, repeating percussion. Thick layers of audio, skillfully mixed with a longtime collaborator, feel both gnarly and spiritual, and her dark, enchanted thinking peak on standout "Lambs", which momentarily becomes a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she pleads, with poignant gallows humor.