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Within the song "Miss America", audiences find themselves inside a lodging near JFK airfield, where the musician learns a devastating update of her father's cancer diagnosis. This UK-raised artist was traveling America for the first time, drumming with group Kero Kero Bonito, and abruptly grief takes over, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering keys and soft strings accompany dark dispatches from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Walton's gentle singing come across with a deadpan style, yet the album's tension arises from the keen penmanship—mixing stories, folksy sayings, and blunt diary entries—along with surprising rich textures. Not many songs this year showcase stronger storytelling style than "Shelly", which describes the killing of an animal and spirals into a fuel-soaked reckoning, reminiscent of written pieces lit with flickers of warped cello. Anxious, subdued verses with echoing, strummed guitar transition into expansive choruses, and Walton's vocals digitally manipulated into something omniscient and menacing.

Listeners may already know the artist from her work as an electronic producer, DJ, and contributor to bands like Caroline. The album's sonic turns draw on this diverse background. The opener "Sometimes" erupts in fanfare, as if an ensemble caught unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically ups the tempo with a punishing, stunning, looping drum fill. Thick walls of sound, skillfully produced with a long-term collaborator, seem at once gnarly and ethereal, and Walton's dark, magical thinking culminate on standout "Lambs", a song that momentarily transforms into a swirling jig. "May your life never end in death," she bargains, with poignant dark comedy.