Indie Rock Group Daughter Explores Alzheimer’s, Loss, And Memory

By Lauren Razavi

To the casual listener, Daughter’s sophomore album — Not To Disappear — is just another collection of moody songs about love, sex, and life. But if you’re listening to it casually, you’re going about things all wrong.

Released on January 15th, the album is atmospheric — immersive — from the very first notes of its opening track, New Ways; immediately a journey of helplessness, grief, and confusion has begun. Lyrics that initially seem to trace the woes of romantic love reveal themselves to actually be about youth, family and old age — a peculiar and at times disorienting sense of lucidity, euphoria, connection and disconnection runs through the songs. Not To Disappear is that pesky thing they call a concept album — yet it’s also one of the boldest records you’ll hear all year.

Daughter, a three-year-old English indie folk trio, consists of Elena Tonra on vocals and guitar, Igor Haefeli on guitar and bass, and Remi Aguilella helming drums and percussion. The words “cult sensation” are more than overused when talking about bands, but in the case of Daughter, the phrase makes for a pretty apt description. The London-based trio has sold out almost every venue they’ve played over the past three years, and after releasing a couple of EPs with Communion Records — the…