Preacher’s Daughter

You’re a white-tailed deer that’s decomposing in a decrepit old Baptist church. The church’s paneling has been eaten away by rot. These are your last moments. There’s death and sadness, sure, but there’s also a sense of profound beauty. The transient sublimity of nature can be felt with your every breath. Now imagine if this were an album. I, too, would piss my pants if I were you, reader.  

Ethel Cain’s (real name: Hayden Silas Anhedönia) Preacher’s Daughter is the quintessential Southern Gothic album. It’s about a girl who cannot escape her generational trauma. There is abuse, murder, and cannibalism. There is also church music and generational trauma, if you’re into that. 

Before we get into the album that will probably change your life, we need to take a look at the Southern Gothic genre. Gothic literature arose as a form of rebellion against the Neoclassical tradition of Rationalism. Gothic literature sought to evoke extreme emotions, like fear or awe. Southern Gothic is a distinctly Americanised version of that. Southern Gothic media frequently deal with themes of madness, decay, and despair. The works often highlight themes of cruelty and generational violence as features of Southern culture. Social trauma is woven into the tissue of society. William Faulkner is one of the most famous writers emerging from the Southern Gothic literary tradition. True Detective Season 1 is an ode to Southern Gothic literature.

Southern Gothic tradition often deals with religion and transience. In the New Testament, Jesus saves all of humanity from this impermanence by giving us a path to heaven, which exists forever. Ethel Cain’s debut album is about the beauty of impermanence (and generational trauma, but we’ll get into that later). This ties into the Japanese idea of Wabi-sabi, which is the acceptance and appreciation of transience.

Preacher’s Daughter is Hayden’s debut album. She slept in a vintage hospital bed in the middle of rural Alabama to complete the album. Yes, it is that serious. The album is intended to be the first of a trilogy. The first is about the daughter (who would have thought), the second is about the mother, and the third is about the grandmother. Hayden was actually a preacher’s daughter; her father was a deacon. You might think Hayden is talking about herself when she titled the album Preacher’s Daughter, but no, you would be wrong. According to her, the ghost of Ethel Cain (that is the name of the fictional character, I’m sorry)  entered her, possessed her for a bit, and then left. This is the story of the ghost. 

The first song of the album, Family Tree (Intro), begins with a voice echoing in a church cathedral. This song highlights the theme of generational trauma, which is explored in depth throughout this album. “Swinging by my neck from the family tree” is a haunting line that captures the fact that she could never really escape her family’s bloodline. She expresses the torment of being bound to something that hurts you so deeply. On a completely unrelated note, Hayden disclosed in an interview that she still feels deeply connected to the Church even after coming out as trans. 

The next song, American Teenager, is a drastic shift in tone. It’s about the life of an idyllic teenager. The idea of the American Dream infects her, but deep down, she knows she could never truly achieve it. Willoughby Tucker is introduced in the next song. It’s her ex-lover. They plan to live in a rural home in Nebraska (ambitious), but it all falls apart when Willoughby disappears one day (it is never specified whether he dies or just ghosts her). This loneliness drives her towards a guy named Logan Phelps. 

In Western Nights, she talks about how Logan shows his love through “shades of black and blue”. He’s an abusive guy, and Ethel puts up with it because she is used to it (her abuse is revealed later in the song Hard Times). This dude robs banks for fun, but he gets fatally shot in one of the attempts, and Ethel is named as an accomplice. This forces her to leave her hometown. This part of the story is explored in Family Tree; it’s basically a reframing of the intro track. Ethel doesn’t have the metaphorical noose around her neck anymore; she’s free. The next song, Hard Times, is a horrific track; it’s about how Ethel was sexually abused by her father when she was younger than ten. It features haunting gospel hums and serves as the end of Act 1.  

Act 2 begins with Thoroughfare, which seems deceptively upbeat and happy, but this is the song in which Ethel is kidnapped. A guy called Isiah picks her up from a parking lot in Arlington, Texas. Initially, he seems like a nice guy who provides a reprieve from loneliness. They make their way to California, where Ethel thinks she can reinvent herself and escape from her trauma.  In the next song, Gibson Girl, he pimps her out and sells her into prostitution. She’s made to believe that she’s doing this out of her own free will. 

The next song, Ptolomaea, is the best song on the album. Ptolomaea is a section in the ninth circle of hell (from Dante’s Inferno), in which people who betray their guests are punished. Isaiah welcomed Ethel into his space, only to later take advantage of her and kill her (spoiler). Ethel experiences hallucinations as she’s drugged by Isiah. The song ends with distorted visuals and Ethel crying for Isiah to stop. Isaiah, drugs Ethel, and takes her to a wood cabin in Northern California. In August Underground, we get distorted voices and disturbing instrumental. It is the first instrumental track of the album. We get the sense that death is catching up to Ethel. Isiah also literally eats her flesh. The song that immediately follows is also fully instrumental. Televangelism is much more peaceful and has a sense of tranquility. Ethel truly experiences the beauty of transience as she passes away. 

Sun Bleached Flies is about Ehtel making peace with her life. She has a yearning to return to the simple house in Nebraska with Willoughby Tucker. Preacher’s Daughter ends with the song Strangers. In Sun Bleached Flies, she makes peace, but in Strangers, her true nature prevents her from escaping the noose of the family tree. It is a haunting and perfect ending to the album. 

So, that’s Preacher’s Daughter for you. I know the album is very depressing, but, like all great works of art, it evokes emotions and ideas from the deepest wellsprings of your being. The breadth of human experience cannot be one-dimensional; it cannot always be up. There is sorrow in Preacher’s Daughter, yes, probably too much sorrow, but at the same time, there is just so much beauty. In Televangelism, as Ethel lay dying, I saw the true beauty of life’s fleeting nature. Like John Marston said, “There’s a lot of ugly in this world, sure, but there’s sure as hell a lot of beauty in it too…just land and light, but to me, it’s life.”