A Trauma Plot Album

New Music 13/08/25

From my Google Map tour of Perry, Florida

I didn’t expect to approach the latest Ethel Cain album with the sort of fervor and commitment I’ve shown it in the last few days, but here I am 2 days late with this and my own home’s leading expert on the lore of Ethel Cain.

Firstly, if you’re new to her work, Ethel Cain doesn’t actually exist. Cain is the fictional character (and artist alias) of Hayden Anhedönia. She’s an expression of Anhedönia’s experiences and the protagonist of her southern gothic drama set in the fictional town of Shady Grove, Alabama. Ethel’s backstory began on her 2022 album, Preacher’s Daughter, a concept album about the abduction of the teenage Ethel, starting with sexual trauma and ending in murder. Her latest release, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, serves as a prequel to that, and tells the story of Willoughby and Ethel’s love and how it ends.

Let me explain how into this album I got: I listened to it for the 3rd time while google mapping myself through various places Anhedönia has lived - namely Perry and Tallahassee, Florida. I scrolled Reddit threads, I spent a curious amount of time on Genius looking into lyrics, I listened to a podcast that treats the murder of Ethel Cain like fact. As I got into it, I realised that part of what is appealing about the Ethel Cain project, is the same thing that has us watching True Crime and slowing down as we pass a car crash: we are fascinated and terrified by all the darkness and pain the world contains. This album feels a bit like a trauma plot album, it directs our attention to the past, it gives us the why, and sometimes Anhedönia feels more like a writer or director, than a musician, this album the soundtrack to Ethel Cain’s very own Marvel universe.

When I wasn’t freaking myself out, sitting in the dark on google maps looking at Baptist Churches in Florida, I managed to listen to a few more things! A brilliant (and not embarrassing) trip-hop album from Sweden (more on the libidinal embarrassments of trip-hop below), a dreamy song from Sweden that sounds like it could have been a track on Addison Rae’s latest album (and why that might be) and also some songs that are not from Sweden!

ALBUMS OF THE WEEK

Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You - Ethel Cain

when i paint my masterpiece - Ada Lea

Forget in Mass - Deki Alem

SONGS OF THE WEEK

(scroll through for full playlist)