Ethel Cain has shared “Nettles,” the first song from her forthcoming sophomore album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, set for release on August 8.
The eight-minute song finds Cain slowly moving out of her gothic epics territory, embracing something closer to psych-Americana. The sound may change, but her ability to cook up nearly 10-minute bangers with ease remains the same. I’m all in on countrified Ethel. Just listen to the fiddle solo during the song’s end!
“This song and the last track on the record were both written the same week, the very first week I moved into the house in Alabama where I finished Preacher’s Daughter,” said Cain. “In similar fashion to Preacher’s Daughter (specifically ‘A House in Nebraska’ and ‘Strangers’), I wrote what essentially became the beginning and end of the story without realizing it. What were originally just little vignettes of emotion I was feeling at the time ultimately became the tentpoles for a larger narrative. ‘Nettles’ became a dream of losing the one you love, asking them to reassure you that it won’t come true and to dream, instead, of all the time you’ll have together as you grow old side by side. Every once in a blue moon, it feels good to slough off the macabre and to simply let love be.”
Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is set to be a prequel to Preacher’s Daughter. Cain produced and recorded the album over the past year in her home studios in Coraopolis, PA and Tallahassee, FL. Check out “Nettles” below.
