Ethel Cain - Preacher's Daughter FULL ALBUM STREAM (Patreon)

yall... I can't believe you hit me with not one but TWO emotional ass albums two weekends in a row! I am rewarding myself with Caroline Polachek next week FOR MEEE! but yeah... anyways, this album was a horror film. Religious trauma, daddy issues, and cannibalism manifested into a slow-core songwriting album with mixed influences of classic southern rock and late 90's grudge. Haunting, mysterious, and sometimes downright gruesome lyricism. Vocally impressive as well through outro moments where you can hear Hayden's voice just releasing their personal pain with non-syllabic melodies. Production does end up lacking a bit though. It's drenched in a ton of reverb and as much as that is for lyrical enhancement I feel like it muddies the clarity of her narrative at multiple points. I might be a little slow but some of the lyrics are also very metaphorical and require a bit of insight. I felt like after most songs I found myself looking to Genius for a description of what the tune was "really" about. From a story perspective a modern-day, southern tragedy, I wouldn't wish this life on my worst enemy. An absolute gutwrenching ending that oddly reminds me of a specific scene in Attack on Titan.

All factors leading up to say that this feels more like a novel or an experience than an album that is meant to go back and listen to for your favorite songs. Not quite my tempo and I find myself enjoying the songs more in concept than in performance. It's a strong concept album that achieves its intent in a fresh and interesting way. Not my personal type of music I frequent but impressive nonetheless. 7.9/10

if you enjoy these written out breakdowns/reviews im gonna be posting a lot more on my AOTY account moving forward so feel free to follow me on there

AOTY: https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/hthaze/

discord: https://discord.gg/qHW2BAzd