Ethel Cain – Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You: Album Review

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Having knowledge of the lore connected to Ethel Cain’s debut album provides a more enjoyable and cohesive experience.

Ethel Cain is the stage name of the character portrayed by 27 year old artist Hayden Anhedönia, the protagonist of her debut concept album Preachers Daughter (2022).

Second studio album Willoughby Tucker I’ll Always Love You revisits the cinematic universe of Ethel Cain to discover her first love, first referenced on Preachers Daughter’s A House In Nebraska.

Knowing Cain’s talent for world building and the requests from fans to expand the Ethel and Willoughby narrative, it seems only natural that a prequel would come in time.

The opening track Janie provides perspective from Ethel’s best friend; Janie realises that Ethel has a new connection with Willoughby that she can’t provide and recounts the heartbreak of losing a friend: “I know she’s your girl now, but she was my girl first.”

It’s an unexpected place to start the album, however it helps to introduce the concept of Willoughby as a character.

It’s followed with the first of three instrumentals, Willoughby’s Theme, a slow piano-led track which wouldn’t feel out of place on the Twin Peaks soundtrack.

Fuck Me Eyes, a synth-pop song which resembles Preacher’s Daughters American Teenager, recounts Ethel Cain’s envy of Holly, a girl who embodies the opposite of the expectations placed upon Ethel by her religious household.

As much as Ethel is jealous of Holly, she also experiences concern and empathy for her: “I’ll never blame her for trying to make it.”

Nettles is country folk in which Ethel recounts the difficulties of a partner loving her, while sonically the second half of the album shifts with Willoughby’s Interlude, the second instrumental reminiscent of Cain’s dark ambient drone record Perverts.

It’s followed soon after with the third instrumental Radio Towers; the instrumentals can be a disruption from the enjoyment of the lyricism, and while Cain isn’t new to using instrumentals, here they don’t add much to the story and can detract from the experience, especially if instrumentals aren’t your thing.

The album closes with Waco, Texas, the longest track at 15 minutes in which Ethel Cain grieves her relationship with Willoughby ending.

It demonstrates the greatest use of her lyrical ability and feels like not only a goodbye to Willoughby, but to Ethel as a character.

There’s no denying that Willoughby Tucker I’ll Always Love You works as its own project however, to fully grasp the narrative portrayed here, having knowledge of the lore connected to her debut provides a more enjoyable and cohesive experience.

Ethel Cain isn’t an artist designed for streaming stand-alone songs, instead her music is best enjoyed when consuming the albums in their entirety.

Whereas this isn’t as strong as her debut, Willoughby Tucker I’ll Always Love You embraces the love story between Ethel and Willoughby and provides a reprieve to the darkness that follows with Preacher’s Daughter.

It’s undoubtedly worth a listen, but give the Ethel wiki a quick search first.

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