On Aug. 8, 2025, Hayden Anhedönia, who performs as Ethel Cain, released her long-awaited prequel to her 2021 concept album “Preacher’s Daughter”, “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You.”
“Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You”, a 10-song album. Many were excited to learn more about the character Ethel Cain’s story through this album. And Anhedönia did not miss, creating a 73-minute masterpiece.
Opening with “Janie,” Anhedönia starts this album on a depressing note. The sad, stringy guitars. The longing lyrics. About Ethel’s best friend and only friend, Janie, Ethel worries she will lose her friend. An experience I’m sure we can all relate to. Fittingly, this became a fan favorite, also one of my favorites.
The album contains two instrumentals, “Willoughby’s Theme” and “Willoughby’s Interlude”. The former song, which Anhëdonia opens her ongoing “Willoughby Tucker Forever” tour. Both ambient pieces are reminiscent of what could have been on her previous studio release, “Perverts”, an ambient/drone album, which is my favorite. Naturally, I love it.
“Nettles”, the single she released first for this album. A fan favorite, just not mine. A lovely folk-country song with poetic lyrics, I would say this isn’t the type of Anhëdonia’s music that I’m a big fan of.
The song, “Dust Bowl” samples “Stars will Fall“, a soul-crushing song by the indie rock band “Duster”, Anhëdonia makes it even more crushing. With lyrics about the destructive nature of relationships, this song now constantly gets played when I’m longing for love, for a future, for anything I don’t have. Or just whenever I’m in my feels. Also, the beat drop *chefs kiss*.
“A Knock at the Door”, the quiet storm of a piece. Not much gets spoken about this piece online. But this acoustic, rainy day sound is just so beautiful, and is one of my favorite songs, about the characters Ethel and Willoughby’s relationship crumbling.
“Radio Towers” and “Tempest” are up next and give us the lore of how a tornado hit Ethel’s town and ultimately ended Willoughby and Ethel’s relationship. Ambient pieces that make the world stand still. You can truly feel Ethel’s pain.
And finally, the 15-minute colossus, “Waco, Texas”. This song grew on me, and is arguably my song off the album. About destroying relationships, this puts Ethel and Willoughby’s relationship to bed. We also learn new lore through the lyric, “Nebraska Dreamin’,” which correlates to “A House in Nebraska” off Preacher’s Daughter. No house. All a dream. This made me lose it.
Overall, “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You” was worth the four-year wait. Although in my opinion the singles off this album were not incredible, the songs that weren’t released until the album came out make up for it. I rank this album a nine out of 10.
