Since gaining a mass cult following for her smashing debut album Preacher’s Daughter, American artist Hayden Anhedönia, who performs as Ethel Cain, has released her apocalyptic sophomore project. Perverts is the absolute opposite of her debut album.
Perverts is a drone EP, featuring slow guitar and demonic spoken-word vocals, with Anhedönia barely singing throughout the album. Fans reacted to the project with mixed feelings; it doesn’t have the blend of southern goth, thrilling alt-rock and traditional pop structure that was seen on Preacher’s Daughter. But that’s exactly what Anhedönia wants.
Perverts is an extreme ‘anti-fame’ album. Anhedönia’s goal isn’t to make something new that will go viral; rather, she wants to de-center herself. Anhedönia lays out her feasible future that she chooses to avoid in an interview with New York Times. “For the first record, I’ll play Miss Alt-Pop Star and I’ll parade myself around and do photoshoots and whatnot, and then I’ll end up like Enya and Joanna Newsom, where I come out of my hidey-hole every five years to drop an album,” Anhedönia said, “But I know I have to earn that legacy. I’m gritting my teeth.”
Anhedönia challenges herself and her so-called fans. Prior to the release, Anhedönia released a short story on her Tumblr (@mothercain) titled “The Consequence of the Audience,” which depicts Anhedönia walking alone through gloomy woods reminiscent of the Dark Woods of Error at the beginning of Dante’s Inferno. She arrives in a clearing and sees a powerful temple on the horizon. The temple houses the great essence of God, and Anhedönia confesses she has walked through these woods before, already knows what’s held inside the dome and is forced to relive the ritual. She ends the tale with the line, “It’s happening to everybody.”
Artists have to give some of themselves up for public use and consumption. That’s how stardom is set up. Anhedönia’s short story provides insight into what artists experience: a constant cycle of jubilant discovery being taken away. Perverts and “The Consequence of the Audience” go hand in hand in challenging the public, forcing many to think about themselves and how they consume.
