Released May 22, 2022

Joey was also telling me this album is one of her sadder ones as her father is depicted as the preacher. Her next one is about her mother with another album following which would be about her grandmother, the OG Ethel Cain. So it's almost as if she's singing tributes to her family but it's more of a tribute to how she felt growing up around them - from how i’m taking it. This is the first album - honestly the first time in general that I have sat down and listened to her and I know everything she does is very intricate. I find her so captivating though because, I, myself have never experienced any sort of religious guilt but religion has always caught my attention. There's so many questions I have towards that whenever I encounter something where I can get an idea of the feeling I find it so enthralling almost. 

My friend Joey has wanted me to do an “analysis” of Ethel Cain's music so we are starting with Preacher’s Daughter. I've never indulged in her music but I listened to the songs Joey has played and they are very beautiful, they are sung with a lot of intention. So far I love this song American Teenager, the music video is perfect also. If I was a teenager who grew up in the mid west I'd feel like I would have a much closer connection with this song especially with the mention of religion. 

Western Nights is very heart wrenching. So far listening to this I feel very melancholic. The songs are very slow and when stuff is slow it's a little harder for me to pay attention to because I kind of doze off so I think these would be good while reading honestly. 

Okay my friend Alessandra has joined me and we are now listening to the final two songs of the album together. She has explained to me that one of the lyrics “take me back to the river” implies her being baptized again, she goes on to say that anytime a river is mentioned, like the lyrics, it refers to when the first baptisms occurred in the Jordan river which makes sense as she's a Baptist.

Listening to this song Hard Times is very hard. There's really no way to analyze this song because she already does it so well. It’s heart wrenching really. Alessandra brought the secondary lyrics to attention which speak very personally, as if it were her internal consciousness trying to come to life, this album all together is rough. Not one for the weak that's for sure.

Okay pause. I thought I had finished but I was so wrong. So let me ACTUALLY finish this. 

I'm finishing listening to this with Joey who knows A LOT more about the lore of Ethel Cain than I do and It's very interesting. I found out Ethel Cain is not her actual grandmother but a literal persona based off of an old Victorian picture she saw of a woman. So basically this whole album is fictional. Which is even crazier knowing this is such a detailed, on-going project. So, this album in particular explores teenage Ethel Cain trying to pursue the American Dream while encountering various forms of abuse with the downfall being her relationship with Isaiah who has kidnapped and started pimping her out in the back of night clubs, as Gibson Girl suggests. All of this makes sense when you follow the album and indulge in the lyrics. For example the ninth song on the track, Ptolmaea is a little creepy, I will admit. I used to read while listening to this song and I don't know how I did that. Anyways this song is basically her hell, she’s essentially having a bad trip and having religious hallucinations circled around Isaiah. The title of the next song is August Underground, this song is mainly instrumentals and paints the image of her murder currently happening. Reading up more about this song in particular is named after the title of a movie, August Underground (2001). She explains that this song was originally an expression of the fear of being sex trafficked or rather she says: “That fear of being taken from home and knowing very bad things are about to happen to you and that you can never go home.” Which is terrifying but also a very real fear that a lot of women also face. 

All together, wow. This was such a beautiful, heartbreaking album. I can't get over the fact that this all came basically from a picture. How many times have you passed an antique postcard or photo and not even thought twice about it? Let alone create a whole storyline based on it. And though this album portrays something fictional there are very personal ties and themes included. Even with something as morbid as this it's something you kind of feel drawn to in a sense that you want to know the full story behind it. Listening to this makes me want to listen to her album Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You, which refers back to her first love who was also referenced a few times in this album. Which is even more heart wrenching knowing in these chaotic moments she found a sense of peace in him. Truly a magnificent album all around.

Televangelism consists of instrumentals depicting her accession to heaven, the afterlife. She explains the song as “more of what's happening in her head as she fades away”. The final two songs are a reflection of her death as she thinks about her family, death and the boy she always loved, Willoughby Tucker. Which is a whole other album with more lore girl. “Strangers”, the final song, serves as a final goodbye to her mother as her body is being cannibilized by Isaiah. She goes back and forth trying to find a reason for her suffering but also poking at the bear as she talks to Isaiah asking “am I making you sick?”, it's her final tribute to the act of trying to survive.