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Within the track "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a lodging near JFK airfield, where the musician receives a heartbreaking news that her dad has illness discovery. The UK-raised performer had been traveling America for the first time, drumming with group Kero Kero Bonito, and suddenly sadness casts a shadow, tinging all with melancholy. Unsteady keys and soft strings accompany gothic dispatches from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Her soft vocals are delivered with a flat manner, while the album's intensity arises from her keen penmanship—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and direct personal notes—along with unexpected maximalism. Not many songs this year showcase more potent storytelling flair compared to "Shelly", which describes the death of a deer and descends toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking written works lit by glimpses of warped cello. Tense, quiet sections with echoing, plucked guitar transition into grand refrains, with Walton's vocals digitally manipulated to become a presence all-knowing and sinister.

Audiences may previously know the artist as a music creator, DJ, and member in groups like Caroline. Daughters' musical twists reflect her varied career. The opener "Sometimes" bursts with fanfare, as if a string band caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the BPM via an intense, beautiful, repeating drum fill. Thick layers of audio, expertly mixed with a longtime partner, seem at once gnarly and ethereal, and her dark, enchanted thoughts peak in highlight "Lambs", a song that briefly transforms into a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she pleads, with heart-aching dark comedy.