I don’t know what I expected from Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, the latest album by Ethel Cain.
I still listen to Preacher’s Daughter quite a lot so it’s hard not to make direct comparisons between the two and I’m going to come out and say it, Willoughby Tucker just isn’t as good. The tamer choices, the obligatory pop break away track in Fuck Me Eyes (which is a good track but doesn’t really sit with the rest of the album and its early placement in the track list just makes this worse) and it all feels a bit like Cain is trying to play a marketing game with this one.
As I’m listening, Nick Cave’s endorsement of Ethel Cain is ringing in my head and I can just imagine him hating this – and that makes me sad, because I think he recognised what was truly special about Ethel Cain’s best work – its free flowing edginess coupled with a beautiful simplistic soundscape. It was authentic and raw. And Willoughby Tucker feels decidedly less so.
The music has become edgier with heavier guitars and an overall discordant sound, yet the lyrics are less so, often flirting with a forgettable melancholy. The magic of Ethel’s sound that captivated so many just isn’t quite there in this release.
For me, Nettles is probably the stand out track. It still retains some of that haunting sound I love from Preacher’s Daughter. I also liked Dust Bowl. Lyrically, it is excellent and I enjoy how it balances simplicity with just the right amount of detail to still tell a story. As a stand alone track it’s enjoyable and reassures me that Cain hasn’t completely lost her way, but again, musically it’s heading more towards shoegaze/dreamcore territory (think julie or slowdive) so it’s somewhat sonically jarring when heard against the backdrop of the rest of the album.
At a hefty 1 hour 13 minutes for 10 songs it comes across as a f you to the gen z 8 second attention span, which, had it flowed more smoothly, could have worked beautifully. There are certainly moments in the album where I drift away and it’s very enjoyable. The ending of A Knock at the Door is one such instance, but the overall discordance of the tracks just takes away far too much from the essence of what this could have been. Somewhat of a disappointment from this promising up and coming artist.