Ethel Cain | Feature Artist

There aren’t a lot of artists drafting the sound of the great American decline like Ethel Cain. Maybe Billy Strings, Geese or Phoebe Bridgers, but none of them have this gothic element that Cain has. It reminds me a lot of ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ and ‘Nebraska’ era Springsteen, but with opioids and Instagram.

‘Preacher’s Daughter’ caught our ear back in 2023, and having Ethel Cain brought to our attention after being booked on the Vivid 2023 bill. The palpable darkness on that record really cut through a lot of the moments of underwriting or overindulgence.

And here we have its spiritual successor: the latest instalment in the Cain-verse, ‘WTIWILY’. Ethel is building her own universe and lore with these records, all centred around doomed middle-American characters who fall prey to vice, addiction, and crime. The result sounds incredible.

This is especially clear when considering that the precursor to this record was the ‘Perverts’ drone album. That project intentionally punished casual listeners, luring them in with ‘American Teenager’ only to deliver a 90-minute beast that’s more ‘Earth 2’ than Taylor Swift. And Willoughby Tucker lies somewhere in between all this with murder ballads, pop tunes, drone and folk abounds.

Ethel called out Terrence Malick's 1978 film ‘Days of Heaven’ in her Criterion Collection picks, and I think that’s the best way to describe this record. A very visual and emotional place, reminiscing on a lost America whilst just rolling through. Just hear the epic 15-minute closer ‘Waco, Texas’.

The record irons out the kinks of ‘Preacher's Daughter’ and builds towards a legacy for Ethel as one of the best breakthrough artists of the 2020’s. She can be gothic, intimate and at moments downright frightening, using her entire sonic palette to assault and charm her audience as needed.

‘Willoughby Tucker, I Will Always Love You’ and ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ are available in the Store now.

#vinyl #ethelcain #willoughbytuckeriwillalwaysloveyou