Born and raised in northern Florida, inspired by everything from Gregorian chant music to the Southern Gothic genre of fiction, Hayden Silas Anhedönia—known best for her projects under the name of Ethel Cain—continues to intrigue on her new release, Perverts, her longest under the Cain moniker.
An autistic bisexual trans woman raised in the Southern Baptist faith in a deeply conservative region, Cain has gained a huge following among young LGBTQ2S+ music fans in particular, many of whom can relate to her. And with over two million monthly Spotify listeners, she’s hit the mainstream.
Her debut album, 2022’s Preacher’s Daughter—which focuses on a fictional character also called Ethel Cain fleeing her family before being murdered and eaten by a cannibal—was critically acclaimed, ranking highly in numerous end-of-year lists, and shooting Cain to a level of stardom that she perhaps wasn’t expecting, and certainly didn’t always feel comfortable with, telling The Guardian in 2023 that she “felt like a performing monkey.” Its mix of Americana, gothic pop and dark wave felt accessible—particularly with the hit “American Teenager”—but also unlike anything else in the charts.
We need only look at the reaction to her announcement of the Preacher’s Daughter vinyl coming out in April to recognize the following Cain has found over the years; a tweet from pop culture news source Pop Base announcing it amassing 37,000 likes and hundreds of comments.
In some ways, it’s barely believable that a concept album about someone running away from home to eventually be murdered and cannibalized could have so much mainstream appeal, but there’s something about Cain’s storytelling and genre blending that’s irresistible.
Since Preacher’s Daughter came out almost three years ago, Cain has shared a song as part of a project by the Givenchy creative director Matthew Williams, contributed to a cover album by emo icons American Football and debuted on the New York Fashion Week runway. She’s also made a series of outspoken political statements—in short, it feels as though she’s been doing what she pleases.
She is very much an artist who is content to do what she wants on her own terms. And Perverts, which Cain has said is not an album but a recording—and not in the same universe as Preacher’s Daughter—only reaffirms this idea. And, in 2023, Cain spoke of a desire to go for long, reverb-heavy tracks with slowcore and ambient influences, which is perhaps an unconventional choice.
And that is, on the whole, what she’s done. It wasn’t as if she ever made radio-friendly pop-by-numbers to begin with, but four of the nine songs here clock in at over 10 minutes, making the release almost 90 minutes altogether—long by any standards, but particularly so in the streaming age. Last year, many of the biggest pop albums sat between 35 and 45 minutes in length, about half as long as Perverts. Preacher’s Daughter was about one hour and 15 minutes, but this is longer still.
“Punish” was the first track to be shared, arriving right at the start of November, and set the tone for what we’d be able to expect. A slow-burner, it’s minimalist and piano-heavy, with the grim subject matter—in Cain’s own words on Tumblr—of a pedophile who’s been shot by the child’s father and maims himself as a form of punishment. “At least that’s what I had in mind,” she added as a caveat. “The song can be whatever you want it to be.”
If you couldn’t deduce this from “Punish,” Perverts as a whole is not a release that’s designed for its tracks to fall neatly into our playlists. It’s one to listen to front-to-back and to really sit with in order to digest the way Cain plays around with sound and texture. Drone-heavy tracks like “Housofpsychoticwomn” and “Pulldrone”—on which she sets out her “12 pillars of simulacrum”—are unsettling, and at times the project is an uncomfortable listen. “Etienne” does away with vocals altogether, “Thatorchia” is seven minutes of discordant shoegaze and the opener—also the title track—begins with an unconventional take on the 19th-century Christian hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” before descending into a whirlwind of sonic confusion.
Religion seems to be an overarching theme on Perverts, in as much as a project like this can have any discernible themes. Given Cain’s background and previous output, this isn’t surprising, but this look at the emotional impact of proximity to God through atonality and ambience isn’t quite like anything else she’s offered before.
Closing track “Amber Waves” is more in line with Preacher’s Daughter, and it’s certainly the easiest track on the record to listen to. Not least because there are actually coherent lyrics here—the further down the tracklist you go, the more vocals you’ll find—but also because it’s generally easier on the ears.
Is Perverts what we expected from Cain? Not necessarily, but then, she’s the sort of artist on whom it’s foolish to place any expectations. You can hear everyone from Throbbing Gristle to La Monte Young more so than the influences Cain’s discussed previously, like Florence Welch and Karen Carpenter.
Cain is an artist we’re much richer for having. But where does she go from here? A couple of years ago, Cain told The Line of Best Fit that she wanted Preacher’s Daughter to be the first in a trilogy of albums, with the second and third being called Preacher’s Wife and Mother of a Preacher, labelling the trilogy as “the Ethel Cain Cinematic Universe.” This hasn’t come to fruition yet, and we don’t know when it might arrive, as popular as it’s sure to be with her fans.
Presumably, however, the character of Cain is here to stay, which can only be a good thing if everything released to date under the moniker is anything to go by. Sure, Perverts may have arrived out of left field for some, but it’s also extremely rewarding.
Perverts is available to stream or purchase now.
Why you can trust Xtra
