Ethel Cain confirms new album is the end of Ethel Cain
Just over a week before the release of her second album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, Ethel Cain, or Hayden Silas Anhedönia, has announced the end of Ethel Cain.
In 2019, Hayden Silas Anhedönia first started recording and releasing demos under the pseudonym of Ethel Cain after previously taking on several monikers. Quickly, though, Cain became more than just a fake name for a project. Instead, it became a full character and storyline, which the music all feeds into.
On Preacher’s Daughter, Cain’s debut album, Anhedönia tells the story of Ethel Cain, a young girl raised in a strict religious community, fleeing heartbreak and abuse only to find more. Alongside the music, she shared more details and easter eggs across her social media platforms, giving fans even more backstory and lore to dive into.
In interviews, she revealed the origins of Ethel Cain. She previously admitted to feeling almost possessed by Cain and obsessed with telling her story. She also shared how there is a level to the character that is deeply personal, previously telling Them, “You can only run so much from where you come from. Ethel was my scapegoat — she kept running and ended up chained to a bed in an attic,” adding, hauntingly, “If I’m the good ending, she’s the bad one.”
With such a rich world now surrounding the character, it seemed that Ethel Cain would be around for a long while. Not only did Anhedönia announce the release of Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, which serves as a prequel to Preacher’s Daughter, but she’d also spoken in interviews about her interest in extending it further.
Despite fans assuming the world of Ethel Cain would continue expanding, a recent interview in which Anhedönia went deep on the upcoming record, her recent controversy, as well as her relationship to Cain as a character, came as a surprise when she seemingly announced that her new album, coming August 8th, will be the end of this story.
“Preacher’s Daughter was speaking on my experience in the church and as a child,” she said on the Popcast, “Willoughby Tucker is more of my insecurities and frustrations and fears and inadequacies in love. And so it’s just as personal, just on a different tip. But all of this, since the debut, has to do with Ethel Cain, the granddaughter’s character.” She then revealed, “So we are now, after this record is over, officially closing that chapter.”
With future plans unclear, Anhedönia spoke about simply needing to live her life, stating, “I built Ethel Cain, the granddaughter’s character, now based off of 27 years of life. I have to go back out now and live and get more experience.”
Perhaps this will result in more projects like Perverts, where the Cain character is put aside to explore different interests. Or, potentially, the repeated mention of Cain as the “granddaughter” is a hint that Anhedönia is merely ready to move focus to the grandmother. Only time will tell.
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