🔗 Share this article

Within this song "Miss America", listeners find themselves in a lodging close to JFK airport, as Jennifer Walton learns the heartbreaking news that her dad has illness discovery. The Sunderland-born artist was traveling America on her initial visit, drumming with group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly grief casts a shadow, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering piano and soft strings underscore dark dispatches from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Her soft singing are delivered with a flat manner, yet this album's tension arises from the sharp writing—blending stories, folksy sayings, and direct personal notes—coupled with surprising maximalism. Not many songs recently showcase stronger novelistic flair compared to "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of a deer and spirals toward a fuel-soaked reckoning, evoking literary pieces lit with glimpses of warped strings. Anxious, quiet sections with echoing, strummed strings transition to expansive refrains, with Walton's vocals electronically altered to become a presence all-knowing and menacing.

Audiences might previously know the artist from her work as an electronic producer, DJ, and member in groups like Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, like a string band caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the tempo with an intense, stunning, looping drum fill. Dense walls of sound, expertly mixed with a long-term partner, seem at once rough and spiritual, and her dark, enchanted thoughts culminate in highlight "Lambs", which briefly becomes a swirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, exuding poignant gallows humor.