“If you love me, keep it to yourself,” Ethel Cain croons on Perverts. It’s a line that reflects the discomfort the artist born Hayden Anhedonia felt after the seductively melodic, Southern Gothic swell of her 2022 debut, Preacher’s Daughter, lifted her from introverted obscurity and washed her up, exposed, under the spotlights of alt-pop stardom.
Raised in a Southern Baptist household in Florida, coming out as gay at 12, leaving the church at 16 and coming out as a transgender woman four years later, Cain’s narrative proved a magnet to queer people, emo kids and outsiders everywhere. She’s a deft storyteller, creating a darker arc for her artistic alter-ego, channelling true crime into the sweltering cannibalism-climaxing tale of Preacher’s Daughter.
