Ethel Cain

One Liner:  Spacey bedroom indie Del Rey by an odd bird

Wikipedia Genre: Ethereal wave, lo-fi, ambient, dream pop, gospel, alternative rock, rock, folk (that is quite a list!)

Home: Alabama

Poster Position: Level 3 (10) 
Weekend Two Only.
Friday.

Thoughts:  Dammit.  I just wrote about how I was annoyed with the artists I have been trying out recently, and then this one brings me "Ptolemaea," which sounds like if Florence and the Machine was in a bad Nine Inch Nails tribute band before they got famous.  Hold on though.  Usually on these profiles, I pretty much provide you with my stream of consciousness about the artist and do not go back and do a major cleanup after I have listened to the whole catalog.  On this one though, I am revising my opinions.

Her earlier work is much less pleasant than the one full album that she released.  So, when I was originally writing about her, it was not especially complimentary.  But now that I have re-listened to the album several times, I am enjoying the vibe.

I keep coming back to the Florence comparison - her voice and tone bring that to mind repeatedly, but the music itself is no where near the power of The Machine.  Like a bedroom Florence project she did on the side.

Fascinating backstory too.  She was born in a tiny town near Tallahassee, FL.  She was home schooled in a very strict Southern Baptist home - she was Baptized three different times, and after coming out as gay to her mom was sent to conversion therapy.  But her input as a child was split between two opposite worlds - Christian music and Gregorian chant from her mom, and horror/violent movies from her grandparents.  After high school graduation, she tried all the drugs, tried six months as a man, and started making dark electronic music under other pseudonyms.  However, even with all of that, her wifi password is still "godlovesyou."

Her legal name now is Hayden Silas Anhedonia - she changed it at age 20, "anhedonia" is the inability to feel pleasure.  She has a ton of tattoos, most of which are homemade and self-drawn.  The very obvious ones are PLEASE across her throat and the Hebrew lettering at her hairline.  In another stranger-than-fiction angle, she actually got signed by the record label owned by Dr. Luke, but after a few sessions it became obvious that she was not trying to make a Ke$ha album.  So, she now lives in rural Alabama, with her sister, in a plain house.  And makes this music.

Her sole album - Preacher's Daughter - made top album lists for 2022 from a bunch of critics who I have never followed - Crack Magazine, Sputnikmusic, Gigwise, Clash Magazine, Dazed, Flood Magazine.  But also Paste, which I know.  So, a lot of cool kids are in to this stuff.  For me, the album is head and shoulders above her earlier music (including a garbage tune with a bad rapper named Lil Aaron - blaming that on Dr. Luke).  The top streamer from that lone album is "American Teenager," with 25.2 million streams.

Yeah, I like that tune.  Her earlier EPs use a ton of effects on her voice that annoy me, and so I think I was in the depths of those songs when I started writing and was overly negative.  But that one is pretty and powerful.  Feels like we are in the neighborhood of Lana Del Rey and Florence.  But that one hits.  Makes me feel huge.  Her other top track is "Crush," from her 2021 EP Inbred.  22.5 million streams.

Meh.  There is that Lana Del Rey sound that has never clicked with me.  Too whispery, too affected, too shoe-gazey and meandering.  Not my thing.

According to a NYT article about her from 2022, here are some fun lines from the profile: 

• "Ethel Cain, might soon be a pop star — or at least the modern version of one increasingly common these days that might more accurately be called a cult star."
• "Before rural Alabama, she rented an abandoned church in a random Indiana town of fewer than 2,000 people."
• “For this first record, I’ll play Miss Alt-Pop Star and I’ll parade myself around and do photo shoots and whatnot, and then I’ll end up like Enya or Joanna Newsom, where I come out of my little hidey-hole every five years to drop an album,” she said. “But I know I have to earn that legacy. I’m gritting my teeth.”

I don't actually expect to go watch this show, but it feels like something that would be amazing to see in a small venue.  We'll see, I'm a little bit intrigued by what she is doing.