Image credit: Daughters of Cain, via AWAL
Ethel Cain’s newest release, Perverts, may not be for casual listening, but is a hauntingly beautiful ambient experience that further showcases Cain’s ability to tell stories through music.
American singer-songwriter Hayden Silas Anhedönia, known professionally as Ethel Cain, has had a cult following since the release of her self-produced debut album Preacher’s Daughter. The album tells the complete story of Ethel Cain’s life and death, with each song adding to the carefully-created lore designed to express the singer’s real life experiences with religious trauma, sexuality and identity. The album brought Cain critical acclaim and mainstream success, and she has since appeared at festivals around the world and performed with artists such as Florence And The Machine and Boygenius. It’s no surprise, then, that the announcement of her next release, Perverts, was met with excitement from both superfans and casual listeners.
After listening to the nine tracks, it’s clear that the album isn’t intended to be a follow up to her previous releases, and fans of tracks such as ‘American Teenager’ may be left disappointed. However, that’s not a criticism; Cain has created a sound that feels entirely new and different from what we’ve heard before, yet still has her signature southern-gothic style. Each song sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack to an avant-garde horror movie; the use of distortion and repetition of lyrics creates a dystopian listening experience.
Lyricism is not a heavy feature on the album – instead, instrumentals are the main focus. The album is an hour and a half long, despite only having nine tracks. The longest song on the album is ‘Pulldrone’, an unsettling 15-minute long experience that opens with spoken word and is taken over by the hum and echo of what sounds like a machine of some kind. I found this track to be the most off-putting; the humming sound is almost hypnotising due to its rise in volume and presence, though this was likely intentional.
Cain released the track ‘Punish’ first as a way to tease her new music. This was a wise decision; the track serves as the perfect transition from the sound of Preacher’s Daughter to Perverts. The song opens with slow, atmospheric piano, and is one of the few songs on the album that heavily features lyrics. Cain sings repeatedly about being punished by love; these vocals are echoed, and the instrumental increases in emotion until the piano is taken over by guitar hums. Increasingly intensifying instrumentals are rampant across the album, alongside lyrical themes of shame and love, and of course sexuality and religion.
Listening through the album was slow and dragged a little at times; as previously mentioned, this isn’t a casual listen. Cain has expressed her distaste at fan culture on numerous occasions, and has been open about her struggles with fame and her wish to not be a mainstream pop star. One can’t help but wonder if she purposefully released a project as sonically experimental as this to purposefully polarise fans, instead of creating an album that satisfies fans who love her more lighthearted, pop-adjacent tracks such as ‘American Teenager’ or ‘Crush’. If this was intentional, she’s achieved this; although the album has received critical acclaim, some fans online have expressed their disappointment.
Overall, I think Perverts is a beautiful album, though I don’t see myself going back and listening to it much. Preacher’s Daughter is one of my favourite albums of all time due to its lyricism and diversity in sound, but I found that a lot of the songs on this album sounded a little too similar and didn’t stand out to me.
I’d rate this album 6/10, though I completely understand anyone who would disagree and rate it higher or lower. Cain has produced an incredible piece of art through Perverts, but I don’t see myself adding many of the tracks to my everyday playlists anytime soon.
