Ethel Cain’s second album of the year is a different and lighter offering to ‘Perverts,’ but it isn’t exactly pop music either.
What is it about Ethel Cain? There are out and out provocateurs out there like Ashnikko and Zand whose every action is designed to create attention and dare you to call them out as provocative. There are a whole raft of bands who go in for difficult content, often in rap or heavy metal because contrariness is built into those genres. Ethel Cain however seems to be going out of her way to make her life difficult because she could clearly make it so much easier for herself. One listen to ‘American Teenager’ and ‘Strangers’ from her Preacher’s Daughter album make it clear this is someone who could generate a string of Taylor Swift level pop anthems without breaking a sweat. So what did she do? She turned out one of the most challenging and difficult albums in recent memory, Perverts. It seemed designed to shed fans and cement her as a different kind of artist. Yet quickly it surfaced there was another batch of tracks coming that would be more of a continuation of the lore and legend around Preacher’s Daughter.
So where does Willoughby Tucker place her at? This is not a sudden repositioning as a pop icon, it is way more tuneful than Perverts though. This builds on the southern gothic vibe of Preacher’s Daughter but does not throw away everything that Perverts was attempting. Overall, it is a meditative album, full of melancholy piano lines, mournful bursts of guitar and as always with Cain a succession of characters with complex and difficult lives. The response to the singles shows that her fanbase, who mostly stayed clear of the brutalist experience of Perverts, are happy to jump right back in here. Why is this the case? Something in Cain’s writing just speaks to and connects with late teenage girls and those in their early twenties who are having a bad day, who don’t feel understood or seen. At the same time the quality of her songwriting and artistry hits with a far wider audience. Leading the album with ‘Fuck Me Eyes’ and ‘Nettles’ shows that she wants to craft excellent music, but she continues to want to do that on her own terms and not make it easy on parents to approve of her as easy listening for teenage daughters.
Whilst the tracks on Preacher’s Daughter were not exactly quick the shortest track here is close to five minutes and they go all the way out to fifteen minutes on album closer ‘Waco, Texas.’ Another provocative choice in that song title. Whilst it is a place, and this song is not overtly linked, it is famous for the Waco siege between US Federal law enforcement and a cult called the Branch Dividians. Given the importance of religion and Cain’s relationship to it in her work this seems an unlikely coincidence given the otherwise simple relationship tale in the lyrics.
The narrative arc of the album concerns the mythologised version of Ethel Cain and her relationship to fictional high school boyfriend Willoughby Tucker, previously referenced in ‘A House in Nebraska.’ This album serves as a prequel of sorts, exploring the relationship more and dissecting how it fell apart. Whilst this could be the content of a million teenage pop albums, in the hands of Ethel Cain it is elevated into high art. This is the second quite extraordinary album Cain has released this year. It will likely take a month or two of living in to feel that it has been fully explored and understood. Whatever happens next, Ethel Cain has established herself as an essential artist of our times, a deep thinker, a risk taker, a master of melancholy and emotion. Is this a better album than Perverts? It is a more enjoyable, more conventional album, yet it still doesn’t qualify as a simple listen. ‘Tempest’ is one of the most incredible pieces of music released this year. Both albums will be featuring on end of year best of lists.
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