Ethel Cain has never been one to color within the lines. Her audacious 2022 debut album Preacher’s Daughter stretched far beyond the confines of pop and alt/indie, crafting an otherworldly soundscape. Now, Cain returns to push boundaries once more with her haunting and unapologetically experimental sophomore album, Perverts.
In a 2023 conversation with actress Kiernan Shipka for Interview Magazine, Cain teased her exploration of a more “slowcore and ambient” sound, which she had cautiously leaned into when writing and producing her first album. “All of my original demos for the album were basically the slowed and reverbed versions of the songs that you hear on the final record,” she explained, “I would show them to my friends and nine out of ten would be like, “I would not listen to this.” And I was like, “Okay. Noted.” So I changed it a bit, and people loved it.” Now, she’s embracing that “slowed and reverbed” sound with a new found confidence.
The album opens with the title track. “Nearer, my God, to Thee/Oh, nearer to Thee /E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,” Cain sings as her voice strains through degraded audio. The unsettling, hymnal quality of the twelve minute track sets the brooding and cinematic tone for the rest of the nine song record.
The production oscillates between ambient drones, voice notes in stereo, and the gothic nostalgia that defined “Preacher’s Daughter.” While much of the album is enveloped in an atmospheric, ghostly sound best heard through headphones, tracks like “Punish” and “Amber Waves” ground listeners in her vivid, narrative-driven storytelling.
Perverts‘ story is one of pain and resilience as Cain grapples with the aftermath of sexual assault and works towards her own healing. In “Punish,” Cain mournfully sings “Shame is sharp, and my skin gives so easy” and “I am punished by love.” The ambient interludes serve as a moment to pause, process, mourn, and heal.
Although Perverts is vastly different from Cain’s debut, it offers a striking portrait of an artist reclaiming herself and her sound in an industry dictated by commercial success.
Listen to the full record below:
Featured Photo: Silken Weinberg
Amelia Cordischi, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Juice Box Press, is an accomplished digital marketing professional with over a decade of experience in media and communications. Her work has been featured in notable publications, including The Boston Globe. A communications graduate of Simmons University in Boston, Amelia served as manager of Simmons College Radio (“The Shark”), where she also launched and co-hosted her radio show, The Find.
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