If the beginning (It wasn’t) was found in the noughties folk revivalism of Tuung and Laura Marling and the end was London Grammar, then the middle was (Not) Daughter, a trio led by Irish-Italian descended singer Elena Tonra and who twisted the movement’s parochialism into a younger, metropolitan form on 2013’s If You Leave.
It’s a cliche based on sterotypical views of her birthright sure enough, but as the band’s writer Tonra has never let her emotions be far from the surface, whilst alternately their second album Not to Disappear was more ethereal than their debut, arcing into worlds suffused with hazy atmospheric tint.
Returning after a seven year absence – Tonra brought out a solo album Ex:Re in 2018 – Stereo Mind Game adventurously toughens the hybrid sound of it’s predecessor, chanelling dream pop on the wistful Be On Your Way, whilst To Rage’s looping shoegaze feels like another natural waypoint. For continuity however the singer still insists on diary-like candour in her lyrics, using the The Party to examine her pre-sobriety relationship with alcohol, but the album’s highlight Swim Back is Daughter at their melancholy soaked, cathartic best, a swooping high fashioned in tandem with a 12 piece orchestra.
Neither a beginning or an end, for Daughter Stereo Mind Game is a kaleidoscopic meshing of all their past and present identities, viewed through whichever lense you decide to use.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 
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