エセルケインの音楽の背後にある文学的な参照のガイド

Alter-ego, character study, muse: Ethel Cain functions as all of the above for Hayden Silas Anhedönia, the cult singer-songwriter subverting the mainstream with her gruesome torch songs. Her catalogue is a masterclass in meticulous world-building, combining mesmeric – and often oppressive – audio landscapes with a brutal narrative that draws deeply on her own personal experiences growing up in a small town in the Florida panhandle. 

Anhedönia first adopted the alias in 2019 and released her full-length debut, Preacher’s Daughter, three years later to universal acclaim. Set in the fictional town of Shady Grove, Alabama, the album tells the story of Cain’s escape from a restrictive religious upbringing and her rapid downfall as she is abused, kidnapped, murdered and ultimately cannibalised by her lover. This month’s prequel, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, traces Cain’s teenage years, in particular her doomed romance with her high school boyfriend. It was preceded in January by Perverts, a pitch-black mood-piece characterised by atonal synths, harrowing drones and her own transgressive mutterings.

Immersive in its scope and steeped in Southern Gothic, Anhedönia is the first to admit her ongoing Daughters of Cain saga owes a huge debt to literature. Here, we drill down into some of the specific texts that continue to inform her vision.

In the posthumous essay collection Mystery and Manners, Flannery O’Connor discusses her fascination with the perverse and macabre, explaining, “Whenever I’m asked why southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognise one.” Just as O’Connor did back in the 1950s and early 60s, Anhedönia channels her devout, southern upbringing to conjure a cast of “Christ-haunted” outsiders and oddities, experiencing unimaginable pain in the face of an implacable, Old Testament God. When Cain entreats, “Take care of me, God,” on God’s Country from the 2021 EP Inbred, we’re well aware her fate is already sealed.

This pitch-black psychological thriller from Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn tells the story of troubled journalist Camille Preaker, who returns to her hometown in Missouri to investigate the murder of a local girl. Anhedönia has admitted to watching HBO’s Emmy-nominated adaptation ten times over, and many of its plot points seep into her songwriting, from the familial trauma and gruesome murder underpinning Preacher’s Daughter to its claustrophobic deep south setting, summed up by Flynn as, “A town so suffocating and small, you tripped over people you hated every day.“

Arguably the most disturbing literary creation of one of America’s greatest novelists, the protagonist of Child of God is Lester Ballard, a cave-dwelling serial killer who preys upon the population of Sevier County, Tennessee. A catalogue of murder, mutilation and necrophilia, Child of God’s carnival of grotesquerie inspired the plot of Preacher’s Daughter, which culminates in Cain being murdered and cannibalised by her abusive lover, Isaiah.

Discussing reference points on her now-defunct Tumblr, Anhedönia told fans, “​​The OG concept [for Perverts] was a character study about different ‘perverts’, inspired by reading Knockemstiff. A sex addict, a paedophile, an arsonist, a sedative addict etc.” Violence, incest and child abuse loom large in Donald Ray Pollock’s subversive collection of interlinked stories, all of which colour Anhedönia’s songwriting.

An arresting blend of memoir and critical analysis, this cult text by Canadian film critic Kier-La Janisse examines female neurosis in the context of the horror genre, from Possession to The Piano Teacher. Anhedönia borrowed both its title and focus for Housofpsychoticwomn, a 13-minute sprawl taken from January’s Perverts. Mingling meditations on grief and shame, her eerie incantations are semi-buried beneath claustrophobic ambient tones and the heady whoosh of warped electronics, like a heartbeat observed over ultrasound. 

Positing that, in contemporary society, signs, images and representations no longer just reflect reality, they create and replace it, Baudrillard’s foundational post-structuralist work has been cited as a key influence on Anhedönia’s thinking. Writing on Tumblr, she explained, “The concept gripped me immediately. Because it merged into my already existing hatred of this rapidly developing cycle of life and reality as we know it flowing into the ether of the internet and back out again, the same but different somehow.” She adapts the book’s central premise for Perverts’ longest track, Pulldrone, delivering a monologue outlining the “12 pillars of simulacrum”, from apathy to desolation.

In its portrayal of doomed youth and burgeoning sexuality, Jeffrey Eugenides’ 1993 novel makes for a natural companion piece to Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You. There’s a particular patina to the record that evokes Eugenides’ spectral tale, but the resemblance is perhaps most striking on Fuck Me Eyes. A synth-driven ballad riffing on Kim Carnes’ Bette Davis Eyes, the song’s subject is a sexually liberated teen who is much admired, but harbours a deep, unshakeable sadness – much like Lux Lisbon, immortalised by Kristen Dunst in Sofia Coppola’s adaptation of Eugenides’ novel.

Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You by Ethel Cain is out now. 

Alter-ego, character study, muse: Ethel Cain functions as all of the above for Hayden Silas Anhedönia, the cult singer-songwriter subverting the mainstream with her gruesome torch songs. Her catalogue is a masterclass in meticulous world-building, combining mesmeric – and often oppressive – audio landscapes with a brutal narrative that draws deeply on her own personal experiences growing up in a small town in the Florida panhandle. 

Anhedönia first adopted the alias in 2019 and released her full-length debut, Preacher’s Daughter, three years later to universal acclaim. Set in the fictional town of Shady Grove, Alabama, the album tells the story of Cain’s escape from a restrictive religious upbringing and her rapid downfall as she is abused, kidnapped, murdered and ultimately cannibalised by her lover. This month’s prequel, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, traces Cain’s teenage years, in particular her doomed romance with her high school boyfriend. It was preceded in January by Perverts, a pitch-black mood-piece characterised by atonal synths, harrowing drones and her own transgressive mutterings.

Immersive in its scope and steeped in Southern Gothic, Anhedönia is the first to admit her ongoing Daughters of Cain saga owes a huge debt to literature. Here, we drill down into some of the specific texts that continue to inform her vision.

In the posthumous essay collection Mystery and Manners, Flannery O’Connor discusses her fascination with the perverse and macabre, explaining, “Whenever I’m asked why southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognise one.” Just as O’Connor did back in the 1950s and early 60s, Anhedönia channels her devout, southern upbringing to conjure a cast of “Christ-haunted” outsiders and oddities, experiencing unimaginable pain in the face of an implacable, Old Testament God. When Cain entreats, “Take care of me, God,” on God’s Country from the 2021 EP Inbred, we’re well aware her fate is already sealed.

This pitch-black psychological thriller from Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn tells the story of troubled journalist Camille Preaker, who returns to her hometown in Missouri to investigate the murder of a local girl. Anhedönia has admitted to watching HBO’s Emmy-nominated adaptation ten times over, and many of its plot points seep into her songwriting, from the familial trauma and gruesome murder underpinning Preacher’s Daughter to its claustrophobic deep south setting, summed up by Flynn as, “A town so suffocating and small, you tripped over people you hated every day.“

Arguably the most disturbing literary creation of one of America’s greatest novelists, the protagonist of Child of God is Lester Ballard, a cave-dwelling serial killer who preys upon the population of Sevier County, Tennessee. A catalogue of murder, mutilation and necrophilia, Child of God’s carnival of grotesquerie inspired the plot of Preacher’s Daughter, which culminates in Cain being murdered and cannibalised by her abusive lover, Isaiah.

Discussing reference points on her now-defunct Tumblr, Anhedönia told fans, “​​The OG concept [for Perverts] was a character study about different ‘perverts’, inspired by reading Knockemstiff. A sex addict, a paedophile, an arsonist, a sedative addict etc.” Violence, incest and child abuse loom large in Donald Ray Pollock’s subversive collection of interlinked stories, all of which colour Anhedönia’s songwriting.

An arresting blend of memoir and critical analysis, this cult text by Canadian film critic Kier-La Janisse examines female neurosis in the context of the horror genre, from Possession to The Piano Teacher. Anhedönia borrowed both its title and focus for Housofpsychoticwomn, a 13-minute sprawl taken from January’s Perverts. Mingling meditations on grief and shame, her eerie incantations are semi-buried beneath claustrophobic ambient tones and the heady whoosh of warped electronics, like a heartbeat observed over ultrasound. 

Positing that, in contemporary society, signs, images and representations no longer just reflect reality, they create and replace it, Baudrillard’s foundational post-structuralist work has been cited as a key influence on Anhedönia’s thinking. Writing on Tumblr, she explained, “The concept gripped me immediately. Because it merged into my already existing hatred of this rapidly developing cycle of life and reality as we know it flowing into the ether of the internet and back out again, the same but different somehow.” She adapts the book’s central premise for Perverts’ longest track, Pulldrone, delivering a monologue outlining the “12 pillars of simulacrum”, from apathy to desolation.

In its portrayal of doomed youth and burgeoning sexuality, Jeffrey Eugenides’ 1993 novel makes for a natural companion piece to Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You. There’s a particular patina to the record that evokes Eugenides’ spectral tale, but the resemblance is perhaps most striking on Fuck Me Eyes. A synth-driven ballad riffing on Kim Carnes’ Bette Davis Eyes, the song’s subject is a sexually liberated teen who is much admired, but harbours a deep, unshakeable sadness – much like Lux Lisbon, immortalised by Kristen Dunst in Sofia Coppola’s adaptation of Eugenides’ novel.

Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You by Ethel Cain is out now.