🔗 Share this article

Within this song "Miss America", audiences find themselves in a hotel room near JFK airport, as the musician learns a devastating update of her father's cancer diagnosis. The UK-raised performer had been touring America on her initial visit, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly sadness casts a shadow, coloring all with melancholy. Faltering piano and soft strings accompany dark dispatches from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Her gentle singing come across in a flat manner, yet this record's intensity stems from her keen writing—blending stories, traditional phrases, and direct diary entries—along with surprising maximalism. Not many songs this year showcase stronger novelistic style than "Shelly", a piece that describes the death of an animal and spirals into a petrol-laden confrontation, evoking literary pieces illuminated by flickers of warped cello. Anxious, subdued verses featuring echoing, strummed guitar move into grand refrains, and her vocals digitally manipulated into a presence omniscient and sinister.

Audiences may already be familiar with Walton as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor to bands such as Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on this varied career. The opener "Sometimes" erupts in flourish, as if an ensemble caught by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM via a punishing, stunning, looping percussion. Dense layers of audio, skillfully produced with a longtime collaborator, feel both rough and spiritual, while Walton's morbid, enchanted thinking culminate in standout "Lambs", a song that momentarily becomes a twirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," Walton bargains, exuding poignant gallows humor.