If it\u2019s cold and dreary where you are right now, I\u2019ve got an album for you. As Snowpacalypse 2016 bores down on the East Coast, I\u2019ve holed up with the second disc from North London\u2019s Daughter, an indie band that blends folk, pop, and rock into a dynamic and altogether lovely sound.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The trio behind Daughter\u2013 frontwoman Elena Tonra, Swiss-born guitarist Igor Haefeli and French drummer Remi Aguilella \u2013 is skilled at crafting veritable snow globes of sound: tiny, detailed, and delicate worlds that turn out to represent something much larger. For instance, opener \u201cNew Way\u201d starts out hushed and spare, wide chasms of space between Tonra\u2019s ghostly vocals and the hypnotic drums. But then it changes form entirely, the guitar line becoming melted and loose as the track sparkles with light. <\/p>\n
The songs on Not To Disappear <\/i>are a masterwork in playing with light and shadow \u2013 a good thing, too, because otherwise they would collapse under the weight of their own sorrow. Indeed, the best moments here reach a place of catharsis, moving beyond a slow-simmering sadness into something more expansive. The track that pulled me into Daughter\u2019s world was \u201cDoing The Right Thing,\u201d which navigates this line nicely. It\u2019s haunting yet gorgeous, building and receding and breathing with life, with an indelible refrain: \u201cI\u2019m just fearing one day soon \/ I\u2019ll lose my mind \/ Then I\u2019ll lose my children \/ Then I\u2019ll lose my love \/ Then I\u2019ll sit in silence \/ Let the pictures soak \/ Out of televisions.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
In many spots here, Daughter reminds me of a less madcap (and sometimes more maudlin) Florence + The Machine, particularly her breakup-heavy latest disc. Sometimes things here do get a little too navel-gazing, like on the gloomy \u201cNumbers\u201d or the plodding \u201cMothers.\u201d Meanwhile, I like \u201cAlone \/ With You\u201d more in theory than in actual practice, as the lyrics are a sharp sting, cloaked in an equally grim haze of instrumentation: \u201cI hate dreaming of being alone \/ \u2018Cause you are never there \/ Just a shadowy figure with a blank face \/ Kicking me out of his place.\u201d Penultimate cut \u201cFossa\u201d navigates a similar lyrical territory but lands more effectively, backing the reverb-soaked guitars with shapeshifting tempo changes. <\/p>\n
But then, Daughter strikes with a cut like the raw, energetic \u201cNo Care,\u201d an outlier on Not To Disappear <\/i>and endlessly enjoyable for it. I\u2019d love even more moments like this, in which the album\u2019s misery gets mobilized into action. It gives a sense of where the band might go on future releases, taking the sometimes hidden sparkle of Not To Disappear <\/i>and allowing it fully into the light. Still, in the wintry January chill, this is a disc I will keep spinning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":32633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9780],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-44400","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-daughter","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44400"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44400"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}