Hayden Silas Anhedonia (known professionally as Ethel Cain) is known for creating ethereal soundscapes and enigmatic musical universes through her songs and lyrics. An American singer-songwriter, Cain is redefining the genre of Southern Gothic for the modern day and age.
Cain’s album, “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You,” is a more traditional Americana album, compared to her most recent album, “Perverts,” which has an experimental ambient sound to it, characterized by its use of drones throughout the tracklist. “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You,” is a prequel to Cain’s debut album, “Preacher’s Daughter.” “Preacher’s Daughter” is centered around the character of Willoughby Tucker, representing her high school boyfriend, and the album is centered around Cain’s relationship with him. Her upcoming album focuses on the events and their connection before they started dating. So far, Cain has released two singles off “Willoughby Tucker,” “I’ll Always Love You- Nettles,” and “Fuck Me Eyes.”
“Nettles” is an eight minute long song, structured as an epic. The song’s intro opens with gentle banjo and guitar plucking, with Cain’s haunting voice gently layering over the instrumentals about a minute later. Cain states that the song is about “a dream of losing the one you love, asking them to reassure you that it won’t come true and to dream, instead, of all the time you’ll have together as you grow old side by side.” The lines from the chorus, repeating throughout the song, “Tell me all the time not to worry / And think of all the time I’ll, I’ll have with you” encapsulate the desire to escape reality and live forever with the one you love, finally climaxing in a joyous harmony of Cain’s voice in polyphony with the strings, banjo, and guitar. They mesh cathartically to create a beautifully satisfying ending that deftly walks the line between bittersweet and blissful.
“Fuck Me Eyes,” Cain’s other single off “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You,” has elements of a power ballad with a clear 80s synth-pop influenced sound to it. The song is about Cain’s conflicting feelings about Holly Reddrick, a female classmate who hangs around with Willoughby Tucker. The song encapsulates the feelings of jealousy and empathy one feels for somebody that they feel is a threat to them yet knows the battles they are fighting as well.The lines from the bridge “I’ll never blame her, I kind of hate her / I’ll never blame her for trying to make it” summarize Cain’s complicated emotions toward her classmate. They illustrate the way girls feel often pitted against each other, and the struggle to understand one another as a friend instead of a competitor. In contrast to “Nettles,” “Fuck Me Eyes,” with the emphasis on drums and synths, is reminiscent of songs like “American Teenager” and “A House in Nebraska” off of her earlier album, “Preacher’s Daughter.”
You can listen to “Nettles” and “Fuck Me Eyes” on Spotify or Apple Music.
