Ethel Cain the Woman You Are
“Preacher’s Daughter” Lore and Review
Fury Basso-Davis | November 20, 2024
Content warning: this story may be disturbing to some readers. Content includes mentions of experiences with abuse, violence, cannibalism and murder. Reader discretion is advised.
“Preacher’s Daughter” follows Ethel Cain, a fictional character personified by the musical artist Hayden Silas Anhedönia. Her music is heavily influenced by Christian music with gothic undertones. She has released albums under different names, her most recent album being “Preacher’s Daughter.”
It is important to note Anhedönia’s upbringing to understand her album. She was born in Florida and raised in a Southern Baptist family. Her father was a deacon and she was heavily involved in the church community, including singing in the church choir.
Cain’s album “Preacher’s Daughter” contains ambient sound and hauntingly beautiful lyrics and vocals. Each song tells a different story about Cain as she searches for herself outside the church after losing her lover, Willoughby Tucker. Throughout the album, Cain meets a man named Isaiah, with whom she becomes involved. Sadly, Isaiah is no Tucker, and he sells her into prostitution and then kills and cannibalizes her.
“Preacher’s Daughter” opens with “Family Tree (Intro),” where listeners are introduced to Cain Cain’s father, the Preacher, saying “A woman, a mother, a mother is a very special thing, and other than the Lord Jesus Christ, I think that a mother is one of the most precious gifts that God gives this world because the mother is the one who loves the lord and always seems to be there when we need her. A mother is a very special thing.”
Cain’s vocals then begin to accompany the gloomy music in the background, opening with “These crosses all over my body remind me of who I used to be,” and “He’ll scream and try to wash it off his fingers. But he’ll never escape what he’s made of.” These lyrics describe the horrors and torment of being tied to something you want to escape, but no matter what you do or how hard you try to get rid of it, it is who you are and where you come from. Cain will always be attached to her bloodline.
In the next track “American Teenager,” the music is upbeat, but do not let that fool you. The juxtaposition between the lyrics and music makes this song enticing. In the song, Cain explains that she is beginning to lose her faith while criticizing the “American Dream.” Cain sings about having put too much faith in the make-believe and sings about how her neighbor’s brother was killed in the war, but he wanted to go so he could escape their hometown and pursue the “American Dream” — whatever that may be. The neighbor’s brother may have seen the Army as his way of attaining the “American Dream” through escaping home, getting a scholarship, a stable income and respect from society. But his death prevented that, hence Cain’s criticism of the pressure to live out the “American Dream.”
“A House in Nebraska” is one of the most beautiful arrangements on “Preacher’s Daughter.” From the vocals to the backing track, it is all-around haunting. “A House in Nebraska” is about Cain’s yearning for her lost lover, Tucker. She reminisces about the times they spent together in a house in Nebraska. The yearnful lyrics last until a beautiful guitar solo that will swallow you. She and Tucker made a plan to escape their home in Alabama and move into the abandoned house. She sings about how she wishes she could return to the time they were together, but she knows it is hopeless. “And it hurts to miss you, but it’s worse to know that I’m the reason you won’t come home.” Cain has no choice but to accept that this is the way it is, and she cannot change it as much as she yearns for it.
After “House in Nebraska,” we are transported from Cain’s past to her present, where she has a new lover named Logan Phillips in the song “Western Nights.” Philips is beautiful, he rides a Harley and robs banks in his free time. However, his beauty is only on the outside, and we learn what Cain is facing. “I watched him show his love through shades of black and blue.” Here, Cain looks to be convincing herself to stay with him because she associates him with escaping her former life. Other lyrics in the song suggest that she will stay with him even if he loses his mind and abuses her if that means she can escape her family tree.
This brings listeners to “Family Tree.” Philips is shot and killed after robbing a bank, and Cain is an accomplice, which causes her to flee the scene of the crime, and all ties to her hometown are broken. “Family Tree” opens and closes with the same lyrics as “Family Tree (Intro).” After his death, Cain has nothing tying her to her hometown in Alabama, and she can now make her own decisions, so she leaves.
The next song on the album is titled “Hard Times,” and Cain tells us about the trauma she endured in her childhood at the hands of her father. She tells us that she was too young to realize that not all forms of love are good. Her father being a preacher, but also being able to abuse her, leaves her confused and full of shame and guilt. “Hard Times” is full of tragically beautiful lyrics such as, “I’m tired of you still tied to me,” and “Tell me a story about how it ends, where you’d be the good guy, I’ll make pretend.” She tells us that she needed her father, but was met with abuse as a response to her love for him. She also says that she used to want to be like him and that part of her still scares her even after she had left.
“Thoroughfare” is the next song on “Preacher’s Daughter,” and Cain has met a man named Isaiah in Texas. She gets in his truck on the side of the road, and they go to California together trying to find meaning in their lives. As they spend more time together, they become infatuated with each other. Cain sings about how he asked her to see the worst with him and she responds by saying “Love never meant that much to me, but I’ll come with you if you’re sure that’s what you need,” and she gives herself to him.
As they fall in love, Isaiah becomes abusive as well and begins to sexually exploit Cain, selling her into prostitution. “Gibson Girl” is the next song and shows Cain’s reality of being lost with no sense of self. This ambient and foggy song represents how Cain has no control over her life. Isaiah tries to convince Cain that what he is doing is not bad by telling her “If it feels good, then it can’t be bad.” Later in the song, she describes her situation with the lyrics, “Obsession with the money, addicted to the drugs. Says he’s in love with my body that’s why he’s fucking it up.” Cain has succumbed to Isaiah’s manipulation, and he can convince her that is what love is.
“Ptolemaea” is the most ambient and darkest song on "Preachers Daughter." It is full of horror and beauty. Ptolemaea is a section on the Nine Circles of Hell in Dantes’s “Inferno” where traitors of guests are sent after they die. Isaiah welcomes Cain into his life but betrays her by abusing, killing and eventually eating her. “Ptolemea” is full of whispers in the background which adds to the hell that Cain was going through during this song, as she is killed and eaten by Isaiah. Cain sings “You love blood too, but not like I do,” and in Cain’s last moments, the contrast between their love of blood is brought to the surface. Cain was attracted to the purity of the blood of Jesus while Isaiah craved the violence and pleasure he got from murdering Cain and making her bleed. As Isaiah killed Cain she screamed for Jesus asking him to make it stop, and telling him she has had enough, but her cries were ignored.
The next two songs, “August Underground” and “Televangelism” are the only instrumental tracks on the album and represent her last moments in life as she dies and her eventual ascension into the afterlife. “August Underground” is full of eerily distorted voices and moans as she dies. The lack of lyrics in this song is representative of how Isaiah carried out his deed. “Televangelism” is much different from “August Underground” although they flow seamlessly into each other. This song is full of beautiful piano riffs and represents her ascension to the afterlife.
“Sun Bleached Flies” is next, and in this song, Cain looks back on her life and her past lover Tucker, the only man she loved, and truly loved her back. She reflects on how her father raised her and the pain she experienced, and in death, Cain craves the comfort of her church and god. She sings “God loves you, but not enough to save you, so, baby girl, good luck taking care of yourself,” she has to come to terms with the fact that things you love can hurt you, and she ends the song with praying for the house in Nebraska, the last time in her life where she felt peace.
Sadly, “Preacher’s Daughter” does have an end, and it ends beautifully. The last song on the album is “Strangers” where Cain says her final goodbyes. “Strangers” is full of the most beautiful vocals and lyrics on this album. Here, Cain tells us her final resting place is in a freezer for Isaiah to finish. She sings “I’m happier here ‘cause he told me I should be,” which signifies the abuse and the following lyrics are “You’re so handsome when I’m all over your mouth,” which is the final blow. The haunting lyrics “I just want to be yours can I be yours? Just tell me I’m yours if I’m turning in your stomach and making you feel sick,” are repeated in “Strangers” and you can hear background vocals saying “no” meaning she was never his, and his only plan for her was to exploit, kill and eat her. The song ends with her addressing her family directly saying “Found you just to tell you that I made it real far and that I never blamed you for loving me the way that you did. While you were torn apart, I would still wait with you there don't think about it too hard or you'll never sleep a wink at night again don't worry about me and these green eyes Mama, just know that I love you, And I'll see you when you get here.” And this is the end of Ethel Cain’s story.
“Preacher’s Daughter” is a beautifully written and composed album with vocals that will capture you from the beginning. Through the story, it is shown that she must face her past trauma and creates a cautionary tale of what could happen if you do not.