Ethel Cain - Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You (Album Review)
Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Written by Sarah Taylor
Photo: Dollie Kyarn
With ‘Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You’, Hayden Anhedönia cements herself as both an alt-pop auteur and a masterful storyteller. Her 2021 EP ‘Inbred’ quickly garnered a cult following, and critical acclaim soon followed with her debut album ‘Preacher’s Daughter’, where she introduced a wider audience to Ethel Cain, the doomed daughter of an Alabama preacher who flees her home in search of love and purpose, but is instead sold into sex work and dies at the hands of a cannibal.
After January’s experimental drone EP ‘Perverts’ Anhedönia has reawakened Ethel, but it would be hard to mistake this record for fan service. ‘Willoughby…’ provides a lovelorn prequel to its predecessor’s harrowing story, detailing her first love and subsequent heartbreak while drawing on Anhedönia’s Evangelical upbringing in Tallahassee to bring the character to life.
While ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ detailed her disturbing demise, draped in southern gothic themes and Americana soundscapes, ‘Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You’ is a coming-of-age album, buoyed with nascent romance in its early tracks, before giving way to lovelorn balladry.
But Ethel’s boyfriend Willoughby has also endured his fair share of suffering. Lo-fi guitars and hair raising melodies set the melancholy tone on opener Janie, with Ethel declaring her undying love for Willoughby and distorted self-perception: “Shoot me down / Come on hurt me / I’m wide open and deserving.”
Ambient and industrial instrumental pieces punctuate the album, with the cascading piano chords of Willoughby’s Theme evoking the innocence of young love before ascending into drones that seem to refer back to ‘Perverts’.
Dust Bowl builds upon the eerie sense of foreboding in Willoughby’s Interlude as the album inches closer to its titular character’s fate. Meanwhile, A Knock at the Door is built upon a roughly strummed guitar and multi-tracked hums, evoking a cultish undertone.
There’s a honeymoon-like quality to tracks like Fuck Me Eyes, which finds Anhedönia experimenting with new wave, encapsulating the sounds of the 1980s, the decade in which the album’s events take place. Lyrically, the song explores the all-too-familiar feelings of competition in high school, idealising the popular blonde whom Ethel views as a threat to her chances with Willoughby.
The sprawling lead single Nettles leans into country. Lyrically, the song explores the effects of trauma on a budding relationship. “To love me is to suffer me,” she sings, projecting her insecurity, and perceiving herself as difficult to love. She imagines the various ways in which she might lose Willoughby, preparing herself emotionally as a form of self-preservation.
The heartbeat monitor-like sounds on Radio Towers derail the album’s once radiant romance. “Please just go easy on me,” she begs on Tempest. At its most gut-wrenching she laments: “I can lead you to bed but I can’t make you sleep.”
Closing out the record with the 15-minute epic Waco, Texas, Anhedönia reaches a state of acceptance at the relationship’s dissolution. She unpacks and processes her pain, mourning what was and what could have been, picking herself apart and pondering how she will recover. ‘Willoughby Tucker, I Will Always Love You’ dares to outdo her debut, showcasing visionary brilliance and proving Ethel Cain is here to stay.
Ethel Cain Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu October 02 2025 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo
Fri October 03 2025 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo
Sat October 04 2025 - GLASGOW O2 Academy Glasgow
Mon October 06 2025 - LONDON Eventim Apollo
Tue October 07 2025 - LONDON Eventim Apollo
Thu October 09 2025 - LONDON Eventim Apollo
Fri October 10 2025 - LONDON Eventim Apollo
Sat October 11 2025 - LONDON Eventim Apollo
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