Ethel Cain, also known as Hayden Anhedönia, released her fourth studio album, “Perverts” on Jan. 8. This latest project is paired with a text titled “The Consequences of Audience” which she posted on her Tumblr account on Oct. 24, 2024.
The text takes the reader through the woods, which she calls the “Great Dark,” where Cain soon realizes she is not alone. She comes across a temple, where she realizes she has done this all before, and so has the audience.
This provides context for the album and demonstrates how a Great Dark is a project any reader or listener can relate to. This sentiment echoes in the text’s final words and throughout the album.
“It’s happening to every-body,” she wrote.
This new project holds a dual meaning. Cain’s message is a glimpse into the darkness of perversion, sexual desire and the consequences of capturing an audience with said darkness. But it also speaks to the singer’s relationship with fame after her 2022 album “Preacher’s Daughter.”
“Preacher’s Daughter” has forced the artist into the spotlight with its vocal ballads and guitar solos. It follows the character Ethel Cain as religion, family and sex shadow her. Like all of her projects, it’s incredibly dark and visceral. But the music is often overshadowed by the large fanbase she acquired.
While the former album showcased her lyrical genius, “Perverts” is a representation of her producing abilities. The nine-track album is an experiment of sound with footsteps, drum beats and an opening of “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” a Christian hymn. It’s followed by Cain singing “Heaven has forsaken the masturbator” in the opening track, “Perverts.” Many of Cain’s phrases repeated throughout the project are done to the point where they fall into obscurity. The dark-ambient droning sounds cover these phrases until they eventually fade into the overall track.
The only long ballads reminiscent of “Preacher’s Daughter” are “Punish,” released on Nov. 1, and the ending track, “Amber Waves,” which follows someone waving goodbye to their lover to get high.
The project carries Cain’s main themes of religion and sexuality, much of what fans can expect. It’s still religious but represents how religion affects the sexuality of both a character and the audience. One cannot help but recall the final words in Cain’s monologue, “It’s happening to every-body.”
Listeners know that Cain is taking them through their most perverted reality. “It’s happening to every-body” emphasizes our own bodies and that no one is safe from Cain’s glimpse into the soul.
“Perverts” is not for casual listening. It’s something that needs to be experienced, and unlike many other forms of music today, it’s patient. Cain has always been willing to make the audience wait for a resolution. It’s something that’s expected of her, and “Perverts” takes it to a whole new level.
Cain might lose some fans over the slowness and dark ambiance of her newest project. But in response, she might gain a more loyal fanbase, people who want to understand the Consequence of Audience and are ready to be in that woods with her.
