The new album from pop’s most unlikely breakout star will floor you

Ethel Cain,Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You

When it comes to lore and myth-building, it’s hard to outdo Ethel Cain.

The 27-year-old’s legal name is Hayden Silas Anhedönia, a title she adopted at 20 when she came out as trans. She grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, the daughter of a deacon, sang in the church choir and was homeschooled until she left home at 18. After falling in and out of hard drugs and depression, she became a nail technician and began making music in her spare time, inspired by her oppressive Southern Baptist upbringing, horror movies and gothic Americana.

Three years after taking on the moniker Ethel Cain, she released her first LP Preacher’s Daughter, a stunning concept album that fleshed out her alias’ backstory. Set in 1991, 10 years after the death of the fictional Cain’s preacher father, it invoked themes of intergenerational trauma, sexual violence and religious repression and ended with Cain being murdered, then cannibalised by her abusive boyfriend.

Musically, it landed somewhere between Cain’s idols Florence + the Machine and Lana Del Rey, only stranger and more tortured. The album scored Cain an obsessive following that’s grown too big to be called “cult”, recently shaken by the revelation of racist and unsavory tweets dredged up from when Cain was 19.

Cain addressed the controversy in a two-page Google Doc, taking accountability for what she says were the actions of a traumatised, attention-seeking teenager. “As I move forward through my life, I aim to use my platform for good, for change, and for progress,” she said, words backed by her outspokenness on social media that has included criticism of both Biden and Trump and support for Palestine. The bulk of her fan base seems to have accepted her apology.

Preacher’s Daughter was the first in a trilogy of albums that Cain plans to accompany with a book series and film. Her following release, the claustrophobic drone EP Perverts, arrived as a curveball just a few months ago. Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is a prequel to Preacher’s Daughter, set five years earlier in 1986, following Cain’s teenage breakup with her first love, the titular Tucker. Less varied in mood and sound than Preacher’s Daughter, Willoughby Tucker might be somehow even more captivating.

The production is largely spare, spectral even. Opening track Janie is little more than guitar echo and Cain’s heavenly, haunting vocals; A Knock On The Door is built around pastoral acoustic fingerpicking; instrumentals Willoughby’s Theme and Willoughby’s Interlude transition from delicate piano into panoramic reverb as dense and sparkling as a starry night.

F--- Me Eyes, Cain’s homage to Kim Carnes’ Bette Davis Eyes, is the poppiest track, with shimmering synths that wouldn’t have been out of place on the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. Banjo and fiddle lend a country twang to Nettles, on which Cain tracks down and plays the synths used by Angelo Badalamenti on the Twin Peaks soundtrack and begs her lover for reassurance she won’t someday wake up on her own.

Flitting between alto and soprano, Cain sounds divine always but positively angelic in the latter register, turning the most common sentiments – “I will always love you”; “I’d do anything for you” – into wrenching, tearjerking promises. Just as affecting are the instrumental tracks, especially the gorgeous Radio Towers, recalling Bon Iver’s self-titled 2011 record.

The album drags slightly towards the end (the final two tracks are 10 and 15 minutes long), but these unhurried songs play out like short films, tales of lost love set to ethereal soundscapes, impossibly sad and beautiful. Preacher’s Daughter set the bar sky-high; Willoughby Tucker transcends it.

Ethel Cain’s Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is out now. Ethel Cain will perform at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on February 16-19, Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on February 21-22, Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall on February 25-26, and Fremantle’s Arts Centre on February 28. Tickets via frontiertouring.com/ethelcain.