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In this song "Miss America", listeners are placed in a hotel room close to JFK airport, as the musician learns a heartbreaking news that her dad has cancer discovery. The UK-raised artist had been traveling the US on her initial visit, drumming alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly grief casts a shadow, tinging all with melancholy. Faltering piano and hushed strings accompany dark dispatches emanating from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's soft vocals are delivered with a flat manner, yet this record's tension stems from her sharp writing—mixing stories, traditional phrases, and direct personal notes—coupled with unexpected maximalism. Few tracks this year possess stronger novelistic flair than "Shelly", a piece that describes the killing of an animal and spirals toward a fuel-soaked confrontation, evoking written works illuminated by glimpses of warped strings. Tense, quiet sections with resonating, plucked guitar move into expansive refrains, and Walton's vocals digitally manipulated into something all-knowing and sinister.

Audiences might already know the artist from her work as a music creator, DJ, and contributor in groups such as Caroline. Daughters' sonic turns draw on this diverse career. The opener "Sometimes" bursts in flourish, like a string band taken unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the BPM via a punishing, stunning, looping drum fill. Dense walls of sound, expertly produced by a long-term collaborator, seem both rough and spiritual, while her morbid, magical thinking culminate in highlight "Lambs", a song that momentarily becomes a swirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, with heart-aching gallows humor.