Daughter - Not To Disappear (4AD) 2016
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It’s been nearly three years since the London-based trio of Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella who go by the name Daughter released their beautifully gloomy and hypnotic debut full-length, If You Leave.
Daughter’s songs always feel like these melancholic lullabies that surround our hearts with tenderness, but these new songs have more energetic elements and thus not making us have too much heavy heart feelings when listening to the songs, but Elena’s world seems more strenuous and sorrowful. Despite that, she is more confident exposing her demons and fears, and turning it into more straight-to-the-face lyrics (“No Care”), writing about delicate subjects (“Doing The Right Thing”), and loneliness and sadness are always mentioned (“Alone/With You”). Sonically, this new album has its upbeat moments, but there’s still this cold and dark soundscape that they are so good at crafting. The guitar work is more vibrant as the atmospheric textures created for each song.
Not To Disappear is a record for people – especially for their fans – to connect with such vivid and common experiences that the band relates to or passed through. The sense of isolation, sadness and hope that they built everytime on their music is life in its pure form and that’s not easy to achieve when it’s so well portrayed.