One of the most exciting new voices in music.
Ethel Cain has been slowly building serious momentum for the last 5 years. ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ marked her major turning point in showing off her entire vision for a darker and more nihilistic take on the current American folk fever.
Cain sweeps the rug out from the current pop/folk scene by baiting listeners with the Springsteen hometown rock pop bliss of ‘American Teenager’ to then present over an hour of gothic opiate folk presenting a concept record showing the titular Preacher’s Daughter descending into abuse, desolation and ultimately being cannibalised. It’s a big gamble to take in the way that single targets a highly commercialised pop market with such heavy material.
Cain then doubled down on this year's ‘Perverts’ which upped the drone and took out all the rock. It’s a biblical punishment of a record that serves the intrusive eye of the internet a big middle finger by denying them all remnants of another ‘American Teenager’.
And the seeds of that defiance are what makes PD such a great record, even more so in hindsight. Highlight tracks include ‘House In Nebraska’, ‘Hard Times’, ‘Ptolemaea’ and ‘Sun Bleached Flies’. It’s a debut that packs a lot of potential that we’re continuing to see come to light. Cain is one of the most interesting artists of the last 5 years to pick a fight with the contemporary corporate rock body.
We back her all the way. This is the artist you should have been listening to yesterday.
Mitch, May 2025
'Preacher's Daughter' is available in the Store now.
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