★★★½
Not To Disappearis the second release from British brooders Daughter, and if their 2013 debut unhemmed your heart with its wistful, haunting melodies, you’ll be a goner for this new ten-track effort.
Opener ‘New Ways’ conjures an apocalyptic landscape with a sparse beat, ambient haze and wailing lo-fi guitars. It’s a fitting welcome to an album oozing with eerie, expansive sounds and big-picture musings on loss, love and loneliness.
The single ‘Numbers’ surges with energy as Elena Tonra’s ghostly vocals drift over tribal drums. ‘Alone / With You’ pulses with synths and biting lyrics, while ‘No Care’ offers reprieve from all the pensiveness, pairing a rollicking snare rhythm with spitfire, monotone vocals.
Nothing, however, packs the emotional punch of ‘Doing The Right Thing’, where Tonra’s fragile vocals and portrait of a woman with dementia is nothing short of gut-wrenching: “I have lost my children / I have lost my love / I just sit in silence”.
The swelling drama and despondence of Not To Disappear will prove overbearing for some, but if you allow yourself to drift with the spacey guitars, synths and vocals, it’s an oddly nourishing wallow sesh.
Daughter’sNot To Disappearis out now on 4AD/Remote Control.
