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In this song "Miss America", listeners find themselves in a lodging near JFK airport, where the musician learns a heartbreaking news of her father's cancer discovery. The UK-raised artist was touring the US on her initial visit, playing with group Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly sadness casts a shadow, coloring everything in grey. Faltering keys and hushed strings underscore dark dispatches emanating from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Her gentle vocals are delivered with a flat manner, while the record's intensity stems from her sharp writing—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and direct diary entries—coupled with surprising maximalism. Not many songs this year possess stronger novelistic flair than "Shelly", a piece that depicts the death of a deer and spirals into a fuel-soaked reckoning, evoking literary pieces illuminated by glimpses of distorted strings. Tense, subdued verses featuring resonating, plucked guitar move into expansive choruses, and Walton's voice digitally manipulated into something omniscient and sinister.

Listeners may previously know the artist from her work as a music creator, disc jockey, and contributor to bands like Caroline. Daughters' musical twists draw on her varied background. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, as if an ensemble caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the BPM via an intense, stunning, repeating percussion. Thick walls of sound, skillfully mixed with a long-term collaborator, feel at once rough and spiritual, while Walton's morbid, magical thinking peak on standout "Lambs", a song that briefly transforms into a swirling dance. "May your life never end in death," she bargains, with poignant gallows humor.