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Within the song "Miss America", listeners are placed in a lodging close to JFK airfield, as Jennifer Walton learns a devastating update of her father's illness discovery. This Sunderland-born performer was touring America on her initial visit, playing alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly sadness takes over, tinging everything with melancholy. Faltering keys and hushed strings accompany dark reports from the road: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's soft singing are delivered in a deadpan style, while the album's tension stems from the keen writing—blending fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt diary entries—along with surprising maximalism. Few tracks this year possess more potent storytelling style than "Shelly", which describes the death of an animal and spirals toward a fuel-soaked reckoning, reminiscent of written pieces illuminated by glimpses of warped cello. Tense, quiet sections with echoing, strummed guitar transition to expansive refrains, and Walton's voice electronically altered into something omniscient and sinister.

Audiences might previously be familiar with the artist as an electronic producer, DJ, and member in groups like Caroline. The album's sonic turns reflect her varied background. The opener "Sometimes" erupts with fanfare, as if a string band caught by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" radically ups the BPM with a punishing, beautiful, looping percussion. Thick walls of sound, skillfully mixed by a long-term collaborator, feel at once rough and spiritual, while Walton's dark, magical thinking peak on standout "Lambs", a song that briefly becomes a twirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she pleads, with heart-aching dark comedy.