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In this song "Miss America", listeners find themselves inside a lodging near JFK airport, where the musician learns the heartbreaking news of her father's illness diagnosis. This Sunderland-born artist was traveling America for the first time, drumming alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly sadness casts a shadow, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering piano and soft strings underscore dark dispatches emanating from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's gentle vocals are delivered in a flat manner, while the album's tension stems from her keen penmanship—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt personal notes—along with surprising maximalism. Not many songs recently possess more potent storytelling flair than "Shelly", a piece that depicts the killing of a deer and spirals toward a petrol-laden reckoning, reminiscent of literary works illuminated by glimpses of warped cello. Tense, quiet sections featuring echoing, plucked guitar transition to expansive choruses, and Walton's voice electronically altered to become something omniscient and menacing.

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 varied career. The first track "Sometimes" bursts with flourish, like an ensemble taken unawares, whereas "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the tempo via a punishing, stunning, repeating percussion. Thick walls of sound, skillfully produced with a longtime collaborator, feel at once rough and ethereal, while Walton's dark, magical thinking culminate on highlight "Lambs", which momentarily becomes a swirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she bargains, with poignant gallows humor.