The American singer-songwriter follows up her debut album.

In her follow-up to the critically acclaimed album Preacher’s Daughter, Ethel Cain diverts from the sounds of her debut album, replacing them with droning, dark ambience and challenging power electronics that could lie comfortably in a horror film soundtrack.

The enigmatic American singer-songwriter Ethel Cain, the alter ego of Hayden Anhedönia, released her captivating debut and concept album Preacher’s Daughter in 2022 with a narrative inspired by her personal life and exploring intense themes.

Preacher’s Daughter deservedly appeared on various end-of-year lists, with Ethel Cain amassing a cult following and newfound fame. However, the Americana, folk and goth-pop sounds found on Preacher’s Daughter are totally absent on her second album Perverts, with this new project possessing little of the familiar and distinctively separate from the Daughter of Cain narrative. Even though fans may have to wait for the direct sequel to the Preacher’s Daughter narrative, they will still be rewarded with a chilling and absorbing 89 minutes of terrifying, atonal, distorted synths and ambient drones with the occasional ethereal voice of Cain that at times will position the listener into the feeling they have landed into the setting of a horror film.

The opening twelve-minute experimental and ambient drone title track begins the album with a scraping, distorted lo-fi recording of the 19th Century Christian hymn “Nearer, My God, To Thee”. Keeping with the religious imagery, the hymn is followed by troubled, bell synth tones and distorted spoken word repeating “Heaven has forsaken the masturbator”. This effectively warns what listeners are to expect by setting up the rest of album by conjuring an environment of aggressive, unsettling menace and bleakness.

Ethel Cain further leans into the drone genre with Housofpsychoticwomn and Pulldrone, with each track as bold and unpredictable as the other. The minimalist Housofpsychoticwomn observes a low, muffled voice repeat “I love you” over and over on top of a static noise until the song is placed into a dreamlike state, whilst Pulldrone has a disconcerting tone and landscape constructed from the buzz of a hurdy-gurdy and monotone voice that tortures the listener, in a complimentary way. 

Vacillator is a seven-minute country ballad and the only song on the album to feature drums with a more traditional and distinct melodic instrumental sounds underlaying Cain’s signature voice making it one of the more accessible songs on the whole of Perverts. She sings mournful lyrics such as “I like that sound you make / when you’re clawing at the edge / and without escape” with a pureness in her voice that juxtaposes the almost violent nature presented in her lyrics. Cain effectively uses her excited, pure voice again in Onanist to contrast the fuzz and distortion of the lo-fi piano diving into sexual undertones as she pleads “I want to know what love feels like”.

Onanist is followed by the instrumental tracks Etienne and Thatorchia. The more melodically sounding acoustic guitar and elegiac piano of Etienne, which could be found on Preacher’s Daughter, are fragmented and mixed with hiss. The striking Thatorchia on the other hand can be considered more of a shoegaze song with screeching feedback from a wall of guitars, mechanical noise and melancholic moans.

Amongst the experimental nature of the album can be found the more conventional and familiar in the spine-chilling, solitary single Punish and the closing track Amber Waves. Punish is a slowcore song introduced with lo-fi piano resulting in a building crescendo that is heading towards an imminent solemn fate supported by Cain’s eerie vocals. The anguish on show is further accentuated through the lyrics that paint a sorrowful picture: “Nature chews on me / Little death like lead / Poisonous and heavy”. The gut-wrenching yet stunning eleven-minute Amber Waves is a ballad that entails an addict justifying to the listener their choice to abandon their lover to get a high: “Cause the devil I know is the devil I want”, ending the track and album with the despondent “I can’t feel anything”. 

The bleak and brutal nature of Perverts may prevent casual fans from multiple repeat listens with the standalone detour from Preacher’s Daughter that fans fell in love with. However, Perverts is definitely still a hauntingly magnificent album that showcases Ethel Cain’s talents in different genres as a producer and storyteller.

Perverts is out now via Daughters of Cain Records.