🔗 Share this article

In this track "Miss America", listeners are placed in a hotel room close to JFK airfield, as the musician learns the devastating news of her father's illness diagnosis. The UK-raised artist had been traveling America on her initial visit, drumming alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly grief casts a shadow, coloring everything in grey. Faltering keys and soft strings underscore dark dispatches emanating from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Her gentle singing are delivered in a deadpan manner, yet this album's tension arises from the sharp penmanship—blending fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—coupled with unexpected maximalism. Not many tracks this year possess more potent novelistic style compared to "Shelly", a piece that depicts the killing of an animal and spirals into a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking literary pieces lit with glimpses of warped strings. Anxious, quiet verses featuring resonating, plucked strings transition into grand refrains, and Walton's voice digitally manipulated to become a presence omniscient and sinister.

Audiences might previously know Walton as an electronic producer, DJ, and contributor to bands such as Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on her diverse background. The first track "Sometimes" bursts in fanfare, like an ensemble taken by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM via an intense, beautiful, looping percussion. Thick layers of audio, skillfully mixed by a longtime partner, seem both rough and ethereal, and Walton's morbid, magical thinking culminate in highlight "Lambs", which briefly becomes a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, with poignant gallows humor.