“Perverts released!” is not a phrase I’d normally be happy to hear, but then when has Ethel Cain’s career ever been normal anyway? Awash with pink noise and unnerving ambient soundscaping, the nine-track project is a sharp left turn from the anti-pop Americana of Cain’s previous full-length release Preacher’s Daughter. However, one thing they do share is a fascination with the macabre.
After writing on Tumblr about what she perceived as an ‘irony epidemic’ back in October of last year, Cain expressed concerns about how today’s project will be received. “The number of times I’ve had to read the same stupid joke like ‘yes, you ate that like Isaiah ate Ethel’… It makes me SO mad,” she posted, “I’m already stressed out anticipating the stupid shit I’m gonna have to see about Perverts… It makes me never want to share anything again.”
It’s not hard to understand her frustration. With subtle hints and explanations being posted on Ethel’s social media accounts in the run-up to the release, it’s clear that Perverts deals with subject matter that the Tallahassee, Florida artist takes very seriously. Piecing together these disparate Tumblr posts, YouTube videos and community theorising, we attempt to untangle some of the cultural references that may have inspired the project.
While the Perverts we hear today has deviated quite a bit, Cain has previously stated that her initial vision for the project was to be a character study on various “perverts”, inspired by reading Pollock Donald Ray’s macabre collection of short stories Knockemstiff (which, believe it or not, is also a name of a town in Ray’s home Ross County). Dark, twisted, and set against a smalltown American background, Ray’s tales are as Cain-coded as they come, with stories following a father pumping his son full of steroids to vicariously relive past greatness, to a psychotic recluse who stumbles upon two siblings in the act of incest. Ethel has since expanded that “Punish” and “Amber Wave” are the only surviving demos of the original Perverts concept, but it is clear that Knockemstiff’s clandestine subject matter looms over the project as a whole.
Speaking of smalltown secrets, Ethel paid homage to psychological horror franchise Silent Hill when she dressed up as the series’ bandaged-up nurse for Halloween last year, later expressing love for its lore and worldbuilding. Originating as a video game series, Silent Hill has since spawned numerous spin-offs set in the fictional American town of Silent Hill and the supernatural events that take place within. Both featuring eerie ambient soundtracks and exposing the (literal) skeletons in the closet of rural American life, it’s easy to see how the Silent Hill universe overlaps with Perverts.
The line “he was a natural plauché” sparked widespread speculation when Perverts’ lead single “Punish” dropped last year. In response to a user on Tumblr, Cain explained: “Punish is about a paedophile who was shot by the child’s father and now lives in exile where he physically maims himself to simulate the bullet wound in order to punish himself.”
In light of this, the line seems to be a loose reference to Louisiana native Gary Plauché who, in 1984, shot and killed Jeffrey Doucet in response to Doucet’s kidnapping and raping of his son. The shooting took place as Doucet was being escorted by police to face trial for his actions and was caught on camera by a local news crew. Notably, Plauché did not serve any prison time for the killing. “Punish”, on the other hand, seems to take place in an alternate reality in which Doucet survives the shooting and evades conviction, but is still plagued by guilt for his crimes.
Cain concluded her Tumblr explanation with: “At least that’s what I had in mind [when] I wrote it. The song can be whatever you want it to be.” Thanks, Ethel, I think I might choose to believe something lighter for my own sanity.
Originally coined by American electronic artist Pictureplane (real name Travis Edegy) in 2009, witch house is a half-serious, half-maligned term describing the eerie thematics behind Edegy’s releases at the time, which harked back to the tranqued-out sonics of bands like the Cocteau Twins decades earlier. Said to include occult-based imagery, creepy samples and dark, atmospheric soundscaping, the term has since resurfaced as a descriptor for Cain’s new sonic direction on Perverts. Cain herself cited Canadian witch house band Purity Ring as a key influence on her artistry in her YouTube video “the ring, the great dark, and proximity to god”.
Now ride with me on this one. Following one Reddit user’s astute observation of the similarities between Ethel’s Tumblr post “Consequence of Audience” and the description of hell in Dante’s Inferno, there is some room to loosely interpret Perverts outright as an extended metaphor for Dante’s journey into the inferno itself. First off, the project features nine songs, with the sparse and ambient opening track “Perverts” seemingly mirroring the first circle of hell: limbo. Diving deeper, second track “Punish”’s focus on a sex offender’s contorted conception of love could be seen as an interpretation of Dante’s second circle: lust. There are other signs: the ninth circle of hell, treachery, is said to be the residence of both Satan and Caina (also known as the biblical Cain, who killed his brother Abel – the singer has admitted that this is her favourite Bible story). There’s also Pervert’s final track, “Amber Waves”, which contains mention of “the devil” (albeit seemingly in reference to the protagonist’s addiction to drugs).
More widely, the concept of ‘rings’ appears to underpin the project as a whole. Both the artwork for “Punish” and Perverts include an esoteric ring, while the sixth track, “Etienne”, is likely a reference to architect Étienne-Louis Boullée’s circular cenotaph to Sir Isaac Newton.
Finally, Ethel has previously explained that she views songs like rings themselves, where sounds come together to form a cohesive circular space. “When the ring begins to activate, when the song begins, you begin to experience ‘the pull’,” she explains, “When the entire spectrum and frequency range is activated, you experience ‘the sigh’, which feels like you’ve been climbing this great wave into the divine theatre – which is where God resides.” Coincidence? I THINK NOT!
