Preacher’s Daughter

Preacher’s Daughter is the debut album of Ethel Cain. It's a singer songwriter album with some resemblance to and inspired by work of Lana Del Rey and Florence Welch. Musically it is more country infused like Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. I like the music of these artists a lot in contrary to this album. This album is very slow, bland and generic. Every song has the same tempo and almost every song is over five minutes long with no reason to justify it. Compositions are traditional, with uninteresting melodies and just drag on without any changes. The instrumentation is ok, but the vocals are laced with a wall of reverb and other processing making it sound flat. The album is 76 minutes (too) long, but it feels like it lasts over two hours. To quote the review of Pitchfork Magazine "CORRECTION: An earlier version of this review calculated the album’s running time as 90 minutes, not 76". I know that where that mistake came from and it's an easy one to make.

Q: how much reverb is too much? A: possibly, this. Pretty trope-y: the singer (or central character represented thereby) has Jesus and daddy issues; the singer likes the bad boys but hoo boy they do not bring happiness. Put in mind of that funny bit with Rydell in Nightmare Folk Art Southern Gothic in William Gibson's Virtual Light. Actually I didn't dislike this at all and listened to its solid hour and a quarter without complaint, but it did stay pretty planted in a single urban country, new-roots lullaby vibe. It needs something (by my lights) to rise up into that higher tier.

Damn, American Teenager has a few bars. These lyrics have some edge on Western nights. The music feels more like a place setting for the lyrics, sort of platforms or backgrounds. Wow I am so invested in this, Family Tree is such a haunting story. Thoroughfare has some of the most emotionally expressive poetry I have heard in a long time. but the turn into Gibson Girl is totally chilling, made even more shocking by the song preceding it. Jesus and then Ptolemaea is even more terrifying, but the lyrics are super washy sounding and really buried into the landscape. That shit was crazy! will need a relisten.

First time ever hearing of Ethel Cain. I'm mostly favorable on the album. Favorite Track: American Teenager 3/5

It's just kinda boring right? 3

Didn’t gel with this one at all, it mostly just annoyed me, so at least it made me feel something.

About as bland and generic as it gets for a pop LP. Very little melodically or instrumentally to distinguish one track from another, especially given how the whole album sounds like it was recorded in a cavern with a mic at the entrance. 75 whole minutes of nothing but reverb and default Ableton presets, exhausting listen really.

From the few things I know about Ethel Cain, I really wasn't expecting her music to sound like very echoy Olivia Rodrigo. Thought my Spotify started autoplaying some different album when "American Teenager" began. Interesting stuff in here, but it's buried in an unholy combination of a person trying to pull "pristine modern pop production" and "crank every FL Studio reverb plugin you can find to max" at the same time. Some cool stuff in here ("Ptolemaea"), but generally not something for me.

Not great. It seems like everyone ever has recorded an americana album, most of them pretty crappy, and this is one of them. It does nothing interesting, just kind of happens and then stops. I liked when it stopped.

I've seen Ethel Cain live 4 times in the past couple of years so naturally, really enjoy her and her music. This album is definitely an acquired taste, especially the later half. There is also a lot of backstory that exists about the whole Ethel Cain character which explains a ton. Like with the follow-up album prequel album. Some people are really into the lore but I'm not so much. I just enjoy her music. Saying that, it's hard for me to determine if you really need to listen to this. I think it's good and very of the moment, but the long-term impact I can't yet evaluate (unlike other contemporary albums). I'll need to see how the rest of her career pans out to determine My personal rating: 5/5 My rating relative to the list: 5/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Slight no.

Perfect album

A little bit of Lana Del Rey, a dash of Florence Welch, a pinch of Sinead O’Connor, and maybe a sprinkling of Taylor Swift… there were several influences I heard in this as I listened. The album was a little on the long side which maybe detracted towards the end. Doesn’t quite reach the heights of those influences in my mind, but I liked it.

The comparison with Lana Del Rey, I get. Maybe lyrically, this album is a bit darker. I do think that this music, live, in the right setting just gets you to your bones. Still quite enjoyed this, though not something I'd put on for my enjoyment again

Just based on the cover I was expecting this to be some dark, alt-country type stuff (which I was looking forward to, because I like that kind of stuff) but it was more of a dark, yet still somewhat pop sounding album. Shades of Chappel Roan but much more dark and brooding. I liked it quite a bit, need to listen some more.

Really enjoyed this album. Beautiful, haunting and surprisingly dark in places, with a really distinctive atmosphere throughout. Loved how it could go from these gorgeous, almost dreamy moments into something genuinely unsettling. A great example of how good some of the new music that is missing from the list. My only criticism is that it’s a bit on the long side for my personal taste, but definitely one I’ll be coming back to.

À table. What's in the menu today? Oh, Ethel Cain's *Preacher's Daughter*. Sounds better than the junk food I've had to deal with lately. Yet it's not the gourmet meal I was expecting either (heavy sigh). I remember how overrated by the "professional critics" this record was when it came out in 2022. Most of those gals and guys are paid to write words, and so many of them are too much impressed by lyrical conceits and narrative-driven concepts to realize it when the music that goes with that sort of thing is as mundane as the one on this record (generally speaking). Too often, the compositions, harmonies and chord sequences found in *Preacher's Daughter* come off as very flat-sounding, mostly in the first half of the LP. I don't mind slooooow, long-winded cuts mostly interested in setting up a mood, but you need to have striking features in them to make them all memorable, especially with such a long album. It's the sort of shortcoming Ethel Cain's inspiration Lana Del Rey -- along with her production teams -- also fall prey to once in a while. But at least Lana's albums are blessed with a wealth of absolute bangers for the genre (and by that, I mean *several* bangers for almost *each* album). As of now, those bangers are very, very rarely found in Cain's discography. Which is where the comparison game becomes a bit cruel to Cain. In a sense, I agree with that five-star review saying that Ethel's "music feels more like a place setting for the lyrics", like "sort of platforms or backgrounds". At least, this user understands that her compositions are just functional vessels for her "cinematic universe". I just can't help pinpointing the kind of overblown ego the artist has, however, since her reach as a composer still clearly exceeds her grasp to even pretend she can build a *musical* universe that would be memorable for most listeners. The first song in the tracklist somehow showing interesting musical substance is "Family Tree", and it's the fifth cut in the album for chrissake... Apart from that, I don't have much to add to the two-star and three-star reviews found in this section. I will be relatively generous for my own grading because the second half of this record *does* come alive, thanks to a string of somewhat striking tracks. There's the C&W-tinged road trip that "Thoroughfare" is, followed by the seedy "Gibson Girl", and the horrific "Ptolemaea". Cain reaches the level of a latter-day Chelsea Wolfe in those songs, which means that she creates a strand of gothic Americana that's worth a visit for sure. A couple of extraneous instrumentals later, you also have the two slowcore bops closing the proceedings: "Sun-Bleached Flies" and "Strangers". That last song has nice musical ideas, even if it remains formulaic to an extent. But what makes it a highlight is how disturbing its pretty graphic lyrics sound over such a dream pop-infused backdrop. I won't spoil the "story" here -- you can find a quite precise summary of it in the Wikipedia page for the album if ever you're interested... So yes, one can safely state that Ethel Cain's lyrical imagination is the main asset of this record -- one that has made it so notable to her fans, very clearly. Whiffs of Flannery O'Connor's near-horror storytelling do abound in those lyrics, along with her concern for theological issues such as redemption and salvation, and the contextualization of those issues as they pertain to rural America. Yet once again, I still think Ethel Cain fans need to understand that when you judge an album, you have to give a fair assessment of the *music* as well. And I am sorry to break it down for you, folks, but on a whole, the music on *Preacher's Daughter* is far too indistinct and derivative to leave an imprint in the long run, when all the hype peters out. If really you're interested in the sort of unsettling world Cain aims at conveying, you can go to those Flannery O'Connor short stories, by the way. They are a great read, and the literary medium will make the journey even more rewarding and thought-inducing than the pastiche version of it you can find in *Preacher's Daughter*. Not that I will blame Cain for trying her hand -- you can't flesh out characters and ideas in a music album the way you can pull it off in a short story or a novel, right? You *can* flesh out the music, though. And that's the issue I have with this record: too often, the meat is spread rather thin on the bone when it comes to its musical ideas. I might be spoiling the conclusion of the story a little here, but as far as my music and songwriting consumptions go, my hunger can't be fully satisfied by this album. It doesn't matter if said pieces of "meat" (and potatoes) were considered as "fresh" or "hot" by the "professional" reviewers back then. There wasn't enough chianti to accommodate the main dishes in the meal, I guess. Bon appétit. Signed H.L. 😉 2.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 3 7.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 2.5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 122 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 139 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 309 (including this one) ---- Salut Émile, Tu pourras lire ma dernière réponse sous le *Little Criminals* de Randy Newman. A+.

I listened to this album about a year back incredibly begrudgingly for my sister, who has this as one of her favorite albums to listen to. Giving a second listen, I enjoyed parts of it more. I just wish the story being told, as good as it is, could be told in about 20 minutes less time. The middle having two or three 7 minute songs just slogs the album so much. The buildup into release of Thoroughfare into Ptolemaea was good, but one that was only after suffering through 30 minutes of slower songs, after the great start of American Teenager. It frustrates me, because there is genuine vocal talent with Ethel Cain, and she chooses to reverb and mask it in order to fully dive and indulge in the fantasy/vibes she's trying to portray with the album. I can commend the artistic commitment, but it just takes away so much for me, combined with the slowcore, that only really ever breaks or makes itself distinct when shoegaze-style guitar unmasks itself, makes a lot of these songs blend together. I 100% could see this as an album, to where once I've listened to it enough to where I can actually distinguish the tracks (which feels like it's going to take more time than the average album) I can enjoy it to the lengths that my sister, or any other people I know do.

Wallow core. Super slow, very deliberately put together, but also deliberately paced. There’s a mix of piano, dirty electric guitars, thumping electronica bass/drum machines, and chamber orchestration in the arrangements for a lush, deep sound and very moody ambience. The best songs have a bit more energy and verve to them, but a lot of it is so glacial it’s hard to appreciate as more than depressive background music. It’s like the prestige tv of pop - very high spec and ambitious, but it really drags on for longer than necessary and enjoys spending time in its own aesthetic world more than anything else and gets kind of boring. A couple of really patience-testing aimless tracks in the middle really drag on and on and on. I liked Lana Del Ray’s first albums a lot, but she’s had a pernicious influence - I don’t dislike any of them individually, but am getting really tired of this anaemic sleepy vibes rock that’s been coming out since the pandemic.

tooooo long man. but pretty nice emotion wise

1960s bob Dylan: I know it's a really long song but it has 43 verses 1970s Yes: I know it's a really long song but it has 4 tempo changes, 8 parts and 3 solos. 1990s ambient: I know it's a really long song but you're either off your face or doing the dishes. Ethel Cain: these are really long songs. If I could hear the lyrics clearly (hello production) then I'd perhaps understand why, as the musical ideas are pretty much there in the first 2 minutes of each. They can sing, they can write but boy do they need an editor. A 2.5 for me but as it felt like I had been listening to this for several years rounding down. Perhaps we could get a deluxe edition which has less.

OK Album, seemed really long. I think I would keep listening to this one. 3/5

This was alright. My wife loves it though.

Lana del who

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: American teenager

Expected a country album of some such but for more weird haunted Gen Z pop. Didn’t hate it but others do it better and the subgenre is somewhat lost on me

Long, moody, sometimes quiet and sometimes loud. Just like me

I found the vocal intriguing but the album length put me off.