Ethel Cain, who’s real name is Hayden Silas Anhedönia, is an artist I have recently discovered. She is a transgender woman who’s artistic endeavors include singing, songwriting, and music production. She was born into a Southern Baptist family in Perry, Florida which greatly influences her music and characters in the stories she tells across her lyrics. First coming out at as gay as a preteen and eventually coming out as a bisexual trans-woman, her Christian small town community made her feel alienated. In a New York Times interview she describes her religious counselor being “the first person in my whole life to ever tell me I wasn’t going to hell,”. One thing that I find fascinating about her music is that it is meant to be consumed as a story from the characters of her own creation, Anhedönia or Ethel Cain. She explores the southern aesthetic of gospel music and Gregorian chants, while also bringing forth darker realities filled with killers, drugs, and religious traumas.
Ethel Cain, which is her stage name, has a growing discography. She has three EPs titled Carpet Bed, Golden Age, and Inbred. Earlier this year she released her debut studio album entitled Preacher’s Daughter. This album received high praise and I believe is a great gateway into the world of her songwriting as the album tells the story of the character Ethel Cain running away from home until she meets her demise to a cannibalistic psychopath. A pretty insane debut album. There are plenty of articles which follow the complexity of each track, but I would like to highlight two which impressed me the most. These being “American Teenager” and “Ptomelea”. The second track on the album “American Teenager” is a coming of age song battling with the idealized life American teens long to experience with themes of religious questioning. It intersects multiple genres of rock, country, and pop making it a nostalgic listen. Then you reach track nine and the genre has completely flipped, showcasing just how complex Ethel’s storytelling abilities are. It feels like a satanic soundtrack of a horror movie. The title of the song “Ptolomea” most likely is a reference to Dante’s Inferno. The third zone of the ninth and final layer of hell is named after Ptolemy, the captain of Jericho, who betrayed and murdered guests in his own home, condemning him to one of the deepest layers of hell. It is the climax of the album filled with sounds and words of betrayal and eerie threatening whispers. The drastic shift in sound and lyrics proves once again that Ethel Cain has an undeniable talent to take her own real world experiences and curiosities, and turn them into an immersive story. I highly recommend looking into her music, even if it is just a one time listen. Her real experiences with gender expression and a Southern Baptist upbringing create a remarkable discography.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Cain
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/arts/music/ethel-cain-preachers-daughter.html
https://www.vogue.com/article/ethel-cain-givenchy-campaign-interview
https://www.nylon.com/entertainment/ethel-cain-preachers-daughter-tour-interview
