Ethel Cain’s latest single Punish marks a new era for the trans music star
Punish is from Ethel Cain’s Perverts album, out 8 January 2025. (Silken Weinberg)
American singer-songwriter Ethel Cain is back with “Punish,” marking a new experimental music era for the star.
The 26-year-old trans singer is ushering in her first project since 2022’s acclaimed Preacher’s Daughter with “Punish”, from her forthcoming standalone project Perverts, set for release on 8 January 2025.
The haunting track is written, produced, and mixed by Cain (whose real name is Hayden Anhedönia). The single sees her move towards an experimental production style.
To date, much of Cain’s grungy music has explored her experience as a trans woman from the American South and her relationship with religion.
With “Punish,” Cain strips everything back to piano chords to build a story around a woman who is “punished by love.”
In taking away layers of production, Cain produces an almost seven-minute long, minimalist track that is as starkly moving as it is deeply sorrowful.
As the protagonist suffers through a loss of innocence and feelings of shame, they sing: “Nature chews on me little death like lead. Poisonous and heavy, it has always been this way.”
The accompanying video, co-directed with Silken Weinberg, embodies that darkness literally, with Cain’s silhouette seen in various rooms around a house sinking into the shadows.
In the press release for the track, Cain shares: “I wonder how deep shame can run, and how unforgivable an act could be that I may still justify it in some bent way to make carrying it more bearable.
“Would I tell myself it’s not my fault and I couldn’t help myself? Would anyone truly believe that? Would I?”
In the description of the video, Cain has linked her Tumblr post titled: The Consequence of Audience.
The short letter or essay critiques the ways in which the culture of fandom has led to her work being misinterpreted with so-called ‘evidence’ about reality being taken from Cain’s lyricism.
Cain has been outspoken about the contemporary fan-artist relationship and recently backed Chappell Roan as she faced backlash over comments about the presidential election.
The reaction to “Punish” has been deservedly positive so far, with NME giving the track 5 stars.
Perverts will be an interesting next chapter for Cain, following Preacher’s Daughter, an album which “centered around the character Ethel Cain.” With Perverts, Cain may be creating a more divided separation between her reality and the stories of her music.
Posting on Instagram about the release of new music on Friday (1 November) Cain wrote: “Thus completes the 12 Pillars of Simulacrum. I will not tell you the visceral details, as you already know them. You all do. It’s happening to every-body.”
Many are theorising about this message, and what the 12 Pillars of Simulacrum could be.
Cain’s previous Instagram posts reveal the 12 Pillars of Simulacrum are Apathy, Disruption, Curiosity, Assimilation, Aggrandization, Delineation, Perversion, Resentment, Separation, Degradation, Annihilation and Desolation.
Ethel Cain’s Perverts is out on 8 January 2025.
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