*Content warning for triggering themes ahead*
On August 8th, 2025, Hayden Silas Anhedonia, also known as Ethel Cain, released her sophomore concept album Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, joining the success achieved from her debut Preacher’s Daughter released in 2022. A masterfully crafted album exploring themes of religious strife tied in with Southern gothic aesthetics, we follow our main character, 20-year-old Ethel Lenora Cain, through this album trilogy.
But what exactly is the premise of this elaborate story, and what makes this new album so important? For casual listeners and seasoned fans alike, here is your guide through the lore of Ethel Cain.
Preacher’s Daughter: ACT I
Released: May 12, 2022
Important characters:
- Ethel Lenora Cain: main character
- Vera and Joseph Cain: mother and father of Ethel
- Willoughby Tucker: Ethel’s first love
- Logan Phelps: Ethel’s second boyfriend
- Isaiah Abram: Ethel’s murderer
Preacher’s Daughter is set in 1991 Shady Grove, Alabama, where the Cain family — consisting of Ethel, her mother Vera, and her deceased father, Reverend Joseph (who tragically died in a fire a decade prior) — live. Act I of the album consists of the following songs:
- Family Tree (Intro)
- American Teenager
- A House in Nebraska
- Western Nights
- Family Tree
- Hard Times
Throughout this act, we discover Ethel’s ongoing struggle with religion despite coming from a religious family, alongside her struggle with her own identity and generational traumas; she seems to have a predestined fate with no say in regards to what occurs. Mortality put into the hands of a divine being far out of reach and comprehension ties Ethel down in her journey throughout a romanticized version of the ‘American Dream,’ as seen in “American Teenager.
“A House In Nebraska” taps into the relationship with Ethel’s first love, Willoughby Tucker, the other main character in the newest album. Our first introduction to Tucker is described when he and Ethel fall in love after spending time in an abandoned house, dreaming of what life would be like living somewhere in Nebraska, far away from their hometown.
After a sudden separation between the lovers, “Western Nights” follows Ethel with her new boyfriend Logan Phelps, who is abusive to Cain, robbing ATMs and banks in her presence. A naive love disguised as devotion, the events come to a sudden end when Logan is killed in a shootout with police after a failed bank robbery, forcing Ethel to go on the run.
Leading through a powerfully electric cleansing of generational trauma in “Family Tree,” “Hard Times” sheds light on the darkness in Cain’s life, reminiscing on the sexual trauma forced upon her by her own father. The loss of innocence and vicious cycles of abuse believed to be “love” somberly close out Act I.
ACT II
The second half of Preacher’s Daughter holds the following songs:
- Thoroughfare
- Gibson Girl
- Ptolemaea
- August Underground
- Televangelism
- Sun Bleached Flies
- Strangers
A cheery Southern blues hit, “Thoroughfare” introduces a new character, and agreeably the most gruesome character, Isaiah Abram. Ethel and Isaiah meet when he offers a runaway Cain a ride in his truck. Together, the two venture from Texas to California in hopes of finding Abram’s “one true love.” As the two spend more time together, a new love emerges with twisted, morbid secrets.
“Gibson Girl” takes inspiration from Charles Gibson and his depiction of “the ideal woman” in the late 19th century. Isaiah and Ethel have now reached California, where Isaiah sells Cain into prostitution and force-feeds her drugs to make money. The sensually dark and flowy tune with slurring lyrics and vocals showcases Cain losing touch with reality around her thanks to the drugs as she tries to find meaning behind Isaiah’s actions.
“Ptolemaea” and “August Underground” comprise a dance with the Devil inspired by Dante’s “Inferno” and the description of Ptolemy, a circle in Hell reserved for traitors. Ethel suffers from hallucinations, exposed to Isaiah’s true malicious intentions of abuse. “August Underground,” named after a pseudo-snuff film, is an enchantingly disturbing instrumental of Ethel’s last desperate attempts to escape from Isaiah, where she meets her untimely murder moments after her 21st birthday in the attic of his California home.
“Televangelism” and “Sun Bleached Flies” comes as a moment of acceptance where Ethel has accepted all that has happened to her throughout her life and instead of feeling hatred and anger. She shows forgiveness to those who wronged her, even those who don’t deserve it. With regrets of past mistakes and tearful final thoughts for loved ones waiting for her return, she becomes free from the pressures and restrictions from home and the cruelty of the real world.
In a final goodbye in “Strangers,” we’re jolted back to reality as Isaiah cannibalizes Cain’s body after days of purposeful starvation. With a last glimpse of empathy for her capturer, and granting closure to her worrisome mother frantically looking for her child, Preacher’s Daughter comes to a close.
Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You
Cain’s newest album, released August 8, 2025, gives us more context for narrative we’ve seen in Preacher’s Daughter.
- Janie
- Willoughby’s Theme
- F**k Me Eyes
- Nettles
- Willoughby’s Interlude
- Dust Bowl
- A Knock At The Door
- Radio Towers
- Tempest
- Waco, Texas
Detailing the events that occurred before those in Preacher’s Daughter, we meet new characters Holly Reddick and Janie, and we see the return of Willoughby.
“Janie,” a slow timbre song wrapped in leather, tells of Ethel’s best friend Janie. Now in a relationship, Cain fears that her best friend’s boyfriend will steal the one person she cares about the most from her without a trace. Fearing this abandonment, Ethel wishes Janie would rip off the bandaid and end the friendship before it’s torn apart, following Tucker’s instrumental.
“F**k Me Eyes” introduces our other new character, Holly Reddick, a classmate of Ethel’s and a girl who hangs around Tucker so often that Cain comes to believe that he is in love with her. One media character Holly can be described as is Jennifer Check (played by Megan Fox) in the movie Jennifer’s Body. She’s a popular, rich girl whom everyone either wants to date or wants to become. But underneath the surface is an insecure girl who fears being only seen as the “pampered princess.” Though Ethel is jealous of Holly, she also is the only one who shows sympathy for all Reddick has to go through.
“Nettles” is an optimistic vision of what life could be for Tucker and Cain after graduating high school, only for this to be the breaking point in the relationship. Ethel’s desire to escape to an unrealistic dream world combats with Willoughby’s mental battle with the demands of the working world.
“Dust Bowl,” first released on Soundcloud in 2022, and “A Knock At The Door” reminisce more on the discourse in paradise. “Dust Bowl” refers to a series of sandstorms that devastated the US in the 1930s and hints at a severe phobia of Tucker’s: storms. It’s a weakness Ethel begins to notice in the relationship alongside the realization that Willoughby doesn’t fear what Ethel does.. death.
In “Tempest,” accompanied by the hospital-like ambience in “Radio Towers,” listeners see the world through Tuckers’ eyes showcasing the disdain for his father, and the abuse caused by Ethel unbeknownst to her. In what fans speculate to be a book written by Hayden, an excerpt was released in April 2022 titled “Diary of a Preacher’s Daughter.” It is still unclear what really occurred between the two characters, but it’s speculated that Tucker either died in the massive tornado that ripped through Shady Grove, or he left the relationship and in order to cope, Cain believed that he died instead.
The final song, “Waco, Texas,” sees Ethel come to terms with the fact that she may have been the cause of Willoughby’s demise. She couldn’t “fix his trauma if she can’t fix her own,” only making matters worse, and she begs Willoughby for his forgiveness as she “didn’t understand she was pushing him away from her.”
Hayden masterfully closes the album as Ethel professes her undying loyalty to her lost love through ashes and blood, through every tear shed and every heartbreak. She’s hoping that one day fate will reunite them, and maybe in another lifetime the two can finally have their happy ending.
Fans eagerly await the start of a new era; this marks the end of Ethel’s story and leads to the next: Vera Cain and Ethel’s paternal grandmother (which is rumored to be titled Preacher’s Wife and Preacher’s Mother).
The Willoughby Tucker Forever tour has officially begun and has generated lots of media buzz as a sold-out tour for both the US and Europe. Catch Ethel Cain in concert to experience this beautiful storytelling firsthand at a venue near you.
Willoughby Tucker Forever (Remaining Dates):
August 20 // Los Angeles, CA
August 21 // Los Angeles, CA
August 22 // Phoenix, AZ
August 24 // Dallas, TX
August 25 // Houston, TX
August 26 // Austin, TX
August 28 // Atlanta, GA
August 29 // Atlanta, GA
August 30 // Asheville, NC
September 4 // Pittsburgh, PA
September 5 // Washington, D.C.
September 6 // Philadelphia, PA
September 9 // New York, NY
September 10 // Brooklyn, NY
September 12 // Boston, MA
September 13 // Buffalo, NY
September 15 // Toronto, ON
September 16 // Toronto, ON
September 17 // Detroit, MI
September 19 // St. Paul, MN
September 20 // Chicago, IL
October 2 // Manchester, England
October 3 // Manchester, England
October 4 // Glasgow, Scotland
October 6 // London, England
October 7 // London, England
October 9 // London, England
October 10 // London, England
October 11 // London, England
October 14 // Brussels, Belgium
October 15 // Utrecht, Netherlands
October 16 // Utrecht, Netherlands
October 18 // Paris, France
October 19 // Paris, France
October 21 // Cologne, Germany
October 23 // Berlin, Germany
October 24 // Hamburg, Germany
October 25 // Copenhagen, Denmark
October 27 // Oslo, Norway
October 28 // Stockholm, Sweden
October 31 // Warsaw, Poland
November 1 // Prague, Czech Republic
November 2 // Vienna, Austria
November 4 // Zurich, Switzerland
November 5 // Milan, Italy
November 7 // Barcelona, Spain
November 8 // Madrid, Spain
November 9 // Lisbon, Portugal
