Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You
The Florida-born singer-songwriter’s 2022 debut album, *Preacher’s Daughter*, was not exactly standard pop fare—a Southern Gothic odyssey steeped in themes of original sin and family trauma, whose fictional protagonist (spoiler alert) dies at the end. Nevertheless, the album broke through to the mainstream, even cracking the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 following its vinyl reissue this spring. Her long-awaited second album, January 2025’s *Perverts*, sat somewhere between passion project and provocation; its 90 minutes of eerie ambient collages seemed designed to challenge fans, if not shake them off entirely. Eight months later, Cain’s third album revisits the narrative that began with *Preacher’s Daughter*, whose centerpiece, “A House in Nebraska,” is a melancholy ode to Willoughby Tucker, the protagonist’s first love. *Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You* functions as a *Preacher’s Daughter* prequel—a story of two young, damaged lovers for whom doom is a powerful aphrodisiac. “I can see the end in the beginning of everything,” she sings on the reverb-drenched “Janie” before concluding grimly: “It’s not looking good.” Between sprawling ambient-folk stunners like “Nettles” and “Tempest,” Cain slips in a handful of moody instrumental interludes à la *Perverts* and a pair of fan favorites initially released as demos: “Dust Bowl,” a staple of her live sets for years, and the 15-minute “Waco, Texas,” for those who like their slow-dance numbers with a hearty dose of fatalism and a sprinkle of ’90s cult lore. Fitting for a concept album set in 1986, there’s also “Fuck Me Eyes,” a synth-pop power ballad starring a hell-raising, denim-wearing angel.
The prequel chapter of Hayden Anhedönia’s Southern gothic epic gravitates toward sludgy slowcore and dusty, sepia-toned folk. It can feel like an endurance exercise, or a test of faith.
Willoughby Tucker is gentler than Preacher's Daughter, for which it serves as a prequel, but its hazy instrumentation and gnawing lyrics hit just as hard.
Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is a yearning-filled feat of musicianship from Ethel Cain.
Ethel Cain closes a chapter with the bleak yet beautiful new album ‘Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You’ – read the NME review
The American singer-songwriter follows up her 2022 debut ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ with a concept album that’s often mesmerising
‘Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You’ makes a return to the small town Americana intimacy of Ethel Cain's debut, serving as a prequel in which she navigates her first love.
On her latest album, Ethel Cain has once again translated incredibly personal experiences into deeply universal feelings.
Ethel Cain is the most exciting artist on the planet right now. Her own particular brand of gothic americana is filtered through generations of voices,
The songs on Ethel Cain's 'Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You' unfurl like hazy, sepia-tinged memories of endless summer afternoons.
Willoughby Tucker I’ll Always Love You album review by Victoria Borlando for Northern Transmissions. The LP drops 8/8 via Daughters of Cain
Hayden Anhedönia tucks flashes of pop transcendence into deep folds of ambient pop
Relatively straightforward songs from the Southern Gothic star - with the emphasis on 'relatively'. Album New Music review by Joe Muggs