In the song "Miss America", audiences are placed inside a hotel room near JFK airfield, as the musician receives the heartbreaking news of her father's cancer discovery. The Sunderland-born performer was traveling the US on her initial visit, playing alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly sadness casts a shadow, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering piano and hushed strings accompany dark reports emanating from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."
Walton's soft vocals come across with a flat style, while the album's intensity stems from her sharp penmanship—blending fiction, folksy sayings, and direct personal notes—coupled with surprising maximalism. Few tracks this year showcase stronger novelistic flair than "Shelly", a piece that describes the death of a deer and spirals toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking written pieces illuminated with flickers of warped cello. Anxious, subdued verses featuring resonating, strummed strings move to grand refrains, and Walton's voice digitally manipulated into something all-knowing and menacing.
Audiences may already know the artist as a music creator, disc jockey, and member to bands such as Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on her varied career. The first track "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, like an ensemble caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the tempo via a punishing, stunning, repeating percussion. Dense layers of audio, skillfully mixed with a long-term collaborator, feel both rough and spiritual, while her dark, enchanted thinking culminate in highlight "Lambs", which briefly transforms into a twirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, exuding poignant gallows humor.
