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Within this song "Miss America", listeners find themselves in a hotel room close to JFK airfield, where Jennifer Walton receives the heartbreaking update of her father's cancer diagnosis. The UK-raised performer had been traveling America on her initial visit, playing alongside indie band Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly grief casts a shadow, tinging everything in grey. Unsteady piano and soft strings underscore gothic dispatches emanating from the tour van: "Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's gentle vocals are delivered in a flat manner, while the album's intensity stems from her keen writing—mixing fiction, traditional phrases, and direct diary entries—coupled with surprising rich textures. Not many tracks this year possess stronger novelistic flair compared to "Shelly", which depicts the death of a deer and spirals toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking written works lit by glimpses of distorted cello. Tense, quiet verses featuring resonating, plucked strings transition to grand refrains, and her vocals electronically altered to become a presence omniscient and menacing.

Audiences might already be familiar with Walton as a music creator, disc jockey, and contributor to bands such as Caroline. Daughters' musical twists draw on this diverse background. The first track "Sometimes" bursts in flourish, as if an ensemble taken unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the tempo with a punishing, beautiful, repeating percussion. Thick walls of sound, expertly produced by a long-term collaborator, seem at once gnarly and ethereal, while her morbid, enchanted thinking culminate in standout "Lambs", a song that briefly transforms into a twirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, with poignant gallows humor.