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Within this song "Miss America", listeners are placed in a hotel room close to JFK airfield, as Jennifer Walton receives the heartbreaking update of her father's illness discovery. This Sunderland-born performer was traveling America for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when suddenly sadness takes over, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering keys and hushed strings accompany gothic dispatches from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Walton's gentle vocals come across in a flat manner, yet the album's intensity arises from the keen penmanship—blending fiction, folksy sayings, and direct diary entries—along with surprising maximalism. Not many songs this year showcase more potent storytelling style than "Shelly", which depicts the killing of a deer and spirals into a petrol-laden confrontation, evoking written works lit with flickers of distorted strings. Tense, quiet sections featuring resonating, plucked guitar move to expansive choruses, and her voice digitally manipulated to become a presence omniscient and sinister.

Listeners might already be familiar with Walton from her work as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and member to bands such as Caroline. Daughters' musical twists reflect this varied career. The first track "Sometimes" bursts with fanfare, as if a string band caught by surprise, whereas "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the tempo with an intense, beautiful, repeating drum fill. Dense layers of audio, skillfully mixed with a long-term collaborator, feel both gnarly and spiritual, and her dark, enchanted thoughts culminate on standout "Lambs", a song that momentarily becomes a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," Walton pleads, exuding heart-aching dark comedy.