Ethel Cain - Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You

Is there a more mysterious world than the one built by Hayden Anhedonïa, the mastermind behind Ethel Cain? Gloomy yet glamorous, humid yet haunting, ‘Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You’ expands this universe with delicate subtlety and nuance, culminating in a powerfully punchy record.

'Willoughby Tucker…’ combines the exceptional songwriting that catapulted 2022 debut 'Preacher's Daughter' to cult classic status in mere minutes, with the malevolent, thick static of January 2025's experimental 'Perverts'. At once nonchalant yet totally breaking, your heart is pulled in all directions at once, experiencing alienation, grief, loss, and all-consuming love at the same moment. In so doing, she proves that nobody portrays vulnerability quite like Ethel Cain.

Hayden's vaguely monotone yet assured vocal performance on 'Dust Bowl' lets the music swell and wane at just the right points, transporting you to a lonesome yet overwhelmingly visceral Midwest plain. When she hits the high notes in the opening track, 'Janie', the stripped-back sonics let you focus in on the gut-wrenching pain etched across Hayden's vocal performance. Instrumental tracks punctuate the record, with ‘Willoughby’s Intro’ and ‘Willoughby’s Interlude’ providing a cinematic aspect as only Ethel Cain could. This soundtrack-esque quality, apt for an album built to present the movie of her life so far, is amplified by gargantuan tracks 'Tempest' and 'Waco, Texas', standing at 10 minutes and 15 minutes respectively, and yet still never being long enough.

Elsewhere, 'Fuck Me Eyes', arguably represents the finest moment of her career so far, narrating the life of a girl both universally admired yet painfully isolated in her backwater hometown. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better single released in 2025 so far.

All in all, and probably unsurprisingly, ‘Willoughby Tucker…’ is a triumph. Hayden is the Crown Princess of alt-pop, and this album underlines exactly why.