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In the song "Miss America", audiences find themselves inside a lodging close to JFK airport, as Jennifer Walton learns a heartbreaking update that her dad has cancer discovery. The Sunderland-born performer was traveling America for the first time, playing alongside group Kero Kero Bonito, when abruptly sadness takes over, coloring everything with melancholy. Faltering keys and hushed orchestration accompany dark reports from the tour van: "Rural scenes and crumbling homes / Shopping centers, illicit trades, anxious moments."

Walton's soft singing come across in a flat style, while the record's tension stems from the sharp writing—blending fiction, traditional phrases, and blunt personal notes—coupled with unexpected maximalism. Not many tracks recently showcase more potent novelistic style compared to "Shelly", which describes the killing of a deer and spirals toward a petrol-laden reckoning, evoking literary pieces illuminated by glimpses of warped strings. Tense, quiet sections with resonating, plucked guitar transition into grand refrains, with her voice digitally manipulated to become a presence all-knowing and sinister.

Listeners might previously be familiar with the artist from her work as an electronic producer, disc jockey, and contributor in groups like Caroline. The album's musical twists draw on this diverse background. The opener "Sometimes" bursts in fanfare, like an ensemble caught unawares, while "Born Again Backwards" radically increases the tempo with an intense, beautiful, looping drum fill. Dense layers of audio, skillfully produced by a longtime collaborator, seem at once gnarly and spiritual, and her morbid, enchanted thoughts peak in highlight "Lambs", a song that briefly transforms into a swirling jig. "I hope your existence doesn't conclude with dying," Walton pleads, exuding heart-aching gallows humor.