Perverts is the second album from Florida singer-songwriter and producer, Ethel Cain. She not only sings and handles production, but plays guitar, piano, harmonica, and bass. Her first album, Preacher’s Daughter, came out in 2022, and the stuff that I’ve heard from that record I greatly enjoyed. The best way to classify that record is as Americana. “American Teenager,” is a masterpiece of a song, so going into this project, I was curious about whether or not the sounds Ethel went for on that album would be similar on this new release. Like on her first record, this album is entirely produced by her. Here’s what I discovered in listening to this new album.

       To start off, I’ll mention the fact that this album sonically is way, way different than Preacher’s Daughter. It’s abrasive, claustrophobic, and downright uncomfortable to listen to at times. It sounds like something you’d hear in a video game series like Bioshock or Silent Hill. Three of the nine tracks on this EP are over 10 minutes long. The title track, “Perverts,” is mainly consisting of this droning, monotonous synth and random, sporadic refrains. The introduction is a hymn that speaks of God and heaven, and it gives you a false sense of security but immediately after that intro is over, you’re immersed in this dark whirly production with interjections of abrasive bass. Ethel’s voice on this track is glitchy and distorted, so I had to look at the Genius annotations to find the lyrics, because I couldn’t understand what she was saying. The main refrain consists of the lines, “Heaven,” and “Heaven has forsaken the masturbator.” “Punish,” is an incredibly disturbing track both instrumentally, and thematically. According to Cain, “Punish is about a pedophile who was shot by the child’s father and now lives in exile where he physically maims himself to simulate the bullet wound in order to punish himself.” The melancholy piano and depressing vocal delivery Ethel uses on this track makes you think it’s about something different and less fucked up. This song makes me uneasy because it presents  the worst kind of criminal there is, and while she obviously isn’t endorsing or condoning that stuff, it humanizes the person who committed these horrible crimes as someone who’s not only feeling ashamed but someone who is harming themselves to cope with the immense guilt and hatred they feel for themselves. I think this was 100% intentional, because she wants the listener to feel uncomfortable by the subject matter of who can and can’t be forgiven. I love the incorporation of distorted guitars as well. Some other tracks I liked a lot were “Housofpsychoticwomn,” and “Onanist.” I personally didn’t really like “Vacillator,” as it doesn’t really feel as experimental and out there as the rest of the record.

     I really liked the biblical themes present in this album, as well as the whole concept of each track covering a different kind of perversion. I just read back that sentence and the last part sounds suspect, so please don’t clip that out of context. This album is really one of those things that you’ll either love or hate, and there’s no in between. It’s wildly different than Preacher’s Daughter musically, as well as thematically. It’s an incredibly dark album, and it’s honestly one of the most fucked up things I’ve listened to in a while. The ambient sound and miserable nature of this project is enthralling, and while it’s not an album that I’d listen to on repeat or like bump in my car, I’d definitely recommend it to Ethel Cain fans, as well as fans of ambient and sinister music. It’s well written, well produced, and Cain’s vocals are absolutely haunting.

Overall Score: 8/10

Favorite Tracks: “Perverts,” “Punish,” “Housofpsychoticwomn,” “Onanist,” “Thatorchia,”  “Amber Waves,”
Least Favorite Tracks: “Vacillator,”

Listen: https://youtu.be/nIvMmTsZVLo?si=jwk082QIj91Ou-UB

Genres: Dark Ambient/Drone/Slowcore