If you like Southern gothic vibes, beautiful lyricism and powerful invoking messages, then you will love Ethel Cain. Ethel Cain is a character created by Hayden Anhedönia, a transgender woman from Florida, who imbues parts of her own life into the music she makes detailing Cain’s story. Anhedönia developed the character’s past through her previous album, Preacher’s Daughter, released in 2022, in which the character deals with both her father’s abuse and different internal conflicts.
Pitchfork’s Evan Rytlewski, in a review of the album, describes Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter: “In its songs, she presented herself as a kind of American gothic Lana Del Rey, with a flair for lurid prose about hateful sex and violent impulses.”
Her music features a lot of instruments such as the piano, bass, harmonica and guitar, paired with a lot of underlying and layered vocals, as well as reverb and lots of background noises, like radio static and a creaky swing. The songs cover a wide range of topics, from child abuse, alcoholism and religious trauma, to cannibalism and sex work.
In January, Anhedönia released Perverts, a drone project that was vastly different from any of her previous works and not following the character of Ethel Cain. Some fans thought that the project was a fandom cleanser, as there have been some toxic, so-called supporters who have reduced Anhedönia’s artistry to just cannibalism. She has refuted this by deleting her Tumblr account.
Cain recently announced her sophomore album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, which will be released in August. It follows one of Cain’s romantic entanglements that she reflects on in her first album.
Some fans have expressed that the focus of the upcoming album isn’t exactly what they wished for. Christina Lopez Tran (III), however, a self-described “listener on a somewhat regular basis,” says, “It’s smart for her to continue doing what she’s known for, though I think it would be a beneficial business plan to expand out.”
This album’s announcement was accompanied by another, afterit was officially made public that Cain will be going on the Willoughby Tucker Forever tour, which will start in August with multiple stops in both Europe and North America. The tour was sold out in a matter of minutes in the initial presale. Boston’s Roadrunner is featured on the list of concert venues, accepting 3,500 attendees with only general admission seats available. Cain is also donating some of the proceeds from these tickets towards The Ally Coalition, a group dedicated to LGBTQ+ equality.
Cain announced prior to the presale that there would be measures in place to prevent robots from buying the tickets and resellers selling the tickets for anything over the original price. Many people were nevertheless left disappointed due to their inability to get the tickets, with some citing a delay in the delivery of the presale codes and the artist’s new widespread popularity as reasons. Boston Latin School English teacher Ms. Sophia Campot, another casual fan of Cain, noted that the experience of trying to get tickets was not easy: “Ticketmaster and other companies have totally monopolized that experience, causing sites to crash, and have made getting tickets pretty impossible.” Ms. Campot also mentioned that the source of discontent is neither the fault of Anhedönia, nor her team.
Besides the expected release of the album Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, Cain has announced several other new shows, but there are no tickets available at the moment. Despite this, fans can still sign up for the waitlist on her official website.
