Jeff's Best of 2025 - #5: Ethel Cain - Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You

People have a lot of capital-o Opinions about Ethel Cain, ranging from her early edgelord presence to her oft-eerie post-Americana sound. She put out an EP of what is best described as drone ambient songs, Perverts, early in the year, and while it was compelling enough as someone who listens to too much drone and too much ambient, I don't think we were prepared for what it ultimately foreshadowed.

Willoughby Tucker is described as a concept album, but it's more of a conceptual journey. Across 10 tracks and nearly 74 minutes, you end up floating down this river of slowcore acoustic songs filled with love and lust, conspiracy and concern. Opening track, "Janie," sets the tone without actually setting the tone at all, and it's only once we get to "Nettles" (one of the best songs of the year) that the disparate sounds come together into a package that turns this from an interesting curiosity to one of my favorite things ever.

There's so much working against this: the shortest track is 4:44, the best one is over eight minutes, and the last two are more than 25. All that, and yet none of the songs feel bloated or overwrought. They feel exactly as long as they need to be, and that's not normal or typical. I loved this album so much because it does so many things so incredibly well, and everyone should take an hour or ten to really immerse themselves in this record and understand why it's one of the best of the year.

Songs of note: "Janie," "Fuck Me Eyes," "Nettles," "Tempest"