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Within this song "Miss America", listeners are placed inside a lodging close to JFK airport, where Jennifer Walton receives a devastating news that her dad has cancer discovery. The Sunderland-born artist had been touring America for the first time, playing with group Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly sadness casts a shadow, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering keys and soft strings accompany dark reports emanating from the road: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks."

Her gentle vocals come across in a flat style, yet this album's tension stems from her keen writing—blending stories, folksy sayings, and blunt personal notes—along with surprising rich textures. Not many tracks this year showcase more potent novelistic flair than "Shelly", which describes the death of an animal and descends into a petrol-laden confrontation, evoking literary pieces lit by glimpses of distorted strings. Anxious, quiet sections with resonating, strummed guitar transition to expansive refrains, with her vocals electronically altered to become a presence omniscient and menacing.

Listeners might previously know the artist from her work as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor to bands such as Caroline. The album's sonic turns reflect this diverse career. The opener "Sometimes" erupts in fanfare, as if a string band taken by surprise, while "Born Again Backwards" drastically increases the tempo with an intense, beautiful, repeating percussion. Thick walls of sound, expertly produced with a longtime partner, feel at once rough and ethereal, and her morbid, enchanted thinking peak on standout "Lambs", which momentarily becomes a swirling dance. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," she bargains, with poignant dark comedy.