Recommended tracks: “Nettles,” “Dust Bowl,” “Waco, Texas”
Artists you may like: Sofia Isella, Big Thief, Flower Face
Under the stage name of Ethel Cain, Hayden Anhedönia has told the story of her tragic persona through music. Serving as a prequel to her Southern Gothic debut album, Preacher’s Daughter, Cain’s sophomore album is equally as heartbreaking, eerie, and nostalgic. Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You tells the story of the character which the album gained its namesake, who was Ethel’s first love.
Willoughby Tucker was first introduced in the song “A House in Nebraska,” and is a character surrounded by a sense of innocence that comes with young love. It is a sharp contrast from the horror of Preacher’s Daughter, where Ethel was running from her past and met her untimely and gruesome end at the hand of her lover, Isaiah. Ethel’s past comes to haunt us in Willoughby Tucker as we learn what she ran from and what she left behind.
“Janie” opens the album softly and gently with a lethargic guitar riff that backs Ethel’s haunting voice. The title comes from the song it is about and who sets the scene: Janie, Ethel’s childhood best friend. Despite opening the album, it is devastating but encapsulates what it is like to have a best friend with a partner: “I know you love her / But she was my sister first.” It is followed by “Willoughby’s Theme,” an instrumental song similar to “Televangelism” from Preacher’s Daughter, that prepares listeners for the rest of the album.
Released as a single on June 4th, “Nettles” is an instant tear-jerker. With banjo, fiddle, and the synthesizers used in the cult-classic show Twin Peaks, it is a song in which Ethel has a nightmare about her love dying and having him comfort her when she wakes up: “When I won’t wake up on my own / Held close all the time knowing I’m half of you.” The lyrics “You’ll go fight a war and I’ll go missing” are also in reference to what awaits Ethel’s future.
After the eerie instrumental “Willoughby’s Interlude,” is “Dust Bowl,” which was originally released on SoundCloud in 2022. It is a six and a half minute long song that begins with an out of tune guitar. It has a classic Ethel Cain sound with the same masterfully crafted lyrics she is known for that paint a wildly vivid picture: “8th grade death pact strike me dead / All of Alabama laid out in front of your eyes / But all you could see was me.”
Closing the album is the fifteen minute long “Waco, Texas.” The initials WT are just the beginning parallels between the story of Ethel and Willoughby, and the events of the Branch Davidian siege. Both events began as a deep passion that ultimately led to devotion and destruction: “I liked him cause his rule was do whatever you like and I tried alright / Now I’ll wear these scars for life.” It is a breakup song, simply put, yet sets the scene for what we know follows Ethel into Preacher’s Daughter.
Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You tells a masterfully crafted story of love and the mourning that comes with it. Ethel Cain is closing this chapter on a high, yet deeply devastating, note with the story of who she was before Preacher’s Daughter and why she left that house in Nebraska.
Pre-save Willoughby Tucker here and preorder here.
The Willoughby Tucker Forever Tour is set to begin next week with two nights back to back in Seattle (August 12th-13th), before heading across North America and then taken abroad to Europe. For the upcoming tour, $1 from every ticket sold will be donated to organizations committed to serving the trans community, via a partnership with The Ally Coalition.
Tickets are selling out, but are available and on sale now.
WILLOUGHBY TUCKER FOREVER TOUR
August 12 // Seattle, WA
August 13 // Seattle, WA
August 15 // Vancouver, BC
August 16 // Portland, OR
August 18 // Berkeley, CA
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
