Hayden Silas Anhedönia released her second full-length album under the moniker Ethel Cain. The album came out on 8th August and is named Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, after the former boyfriend of Ethel Cain.
I spent my summer holiday in the UK, and while walking through the streets of Liverpool, I noticed the sign over the Rough Trade Store. It was like an old cinema sign, where a person should put on his own the letters over the sign: the sign had written on it “Ethel Cain: new album out now”.
Ethel Cain is actually the main music project by Anhedönia. This project is focused on three women of the Cain family; this record traces the story of Ethel Cain and her high school years starting in 1986. As the title of the album suggests, Willoughby Tucker is her former boyfriend, and the storytelling mostly focuses on their relationship.
In different interviews, Cain says that at the end of 2022, she started working on an EP serving as a prequel to her recent release, Preacher’s Daughter. Later she referred to this record as “the B-sides”, and after multiple delays the album was reimagined as a full-length, with 10 tracks for a total length of 1,13 hours.
The songwriting is fascinating and shows the amazing capacities of Anhedönia and her musicians. The style is something more than modern American folk: we can hear several things that remind us of classic Folk from the USA, but Anhedönia’s songwriting takes this music to another level.
You need to listen carefully to this record, because every track is a part of Cain’s story and life. Starting from ”Janie”, a slow song about missing a dear friend, the whole album is capable of giving you the emotions that Anhedönia wants to expose.
The record starts with the story of ”Janie<”/i>, Cain’s best friend, who has moved away from her due to her new boyfriend. Due to this situation, Ethel Cains starts to get closer to Willoughby Tucker, and they get into a relationship themselves, and then the instrumental ”Willoughby’s Theme” introduces Willoughby Tucker. In ’Fuck Me Eyes”, we meet another character, Holly Reddick, a tougher and more secure person than Ethel, as Willoughby says, making Ethel hate Holly. Then we find ”Nettles and Willoughby’s Interlude”, and we arrive at ”Dust Bowl”, a song where Ethel and Willoughby come closer due to their similar past, made by a violent father and a traumatic upbringing. After ”A Knock At The Door” and the last instrumental ”Radio Towers” arrives another important moment in the album; in ”Tempest” we are told about the tornado that hit Shady Groves in 1991, where Ethel and Willoughby split up that night, make Willoughby think about their relationship.
Closing this record, we have ”Waco, Texas”, with a soft guitar that introduces us to the end of this part of the story.
Listening to the three instrumentals, ”Willoughby’s Theme”, “Willoughby’s Interlude” and ”Radio Tower, we can hear how this music is carefully crafted and strategically placed to give you more information nevertheless without telling you anything.
If you’re in search of a record that is not only music but also of an engaging story, I suggest giving a chance to this Ethel Cain record: a story written by Anhedönia revisiting the very important lessons that changed her life
