Ethel Cain: “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You” Album Review and Analysis
- Magda Kanecka
- Aug 17
- 6 min read
By Magda Kanecka I August 2025
I have always adored Ethel Cain’s ability to create and elaborate on an alternative universe or concept within each of her releases. Her previous album, “Preacher’s Daughter”, executed this exceptionally well, following the story of Ethel Cain (the character) throughout her life in a small, religious village. The new release is no different in its creativity.
Storyline-wise, this album is a prequel to “Preacher’s Daughter”, outlining the life of Ethel before she moved away, and her partner at the time, named Willoughby Tucker. His name features on Ethel Cain’s 2023 song, “A House in Nebraska”, which is still one of my favourite tracks by her to this day.
The first track, “Janie”, sets the theme for the album, featuring the album line “I’ll always love you”. While it is melancholic and slow, I still appreciate the guitar strings that the listener can hear in the background. The reason why it captures the mood for the album so well is primarily due to the vulnerable lyrics, which discuss themes of loving someone so much it hurts you, and letting them hurt you regardless. Ethel Cain has previously touched on similar themes throughout her discography, and this song continues to reflect this to the same extent.
“Willoughby’s Theme” is an instrumental track that features beautiful piano notes and an emotionally charged build-up as the song progresses. It is very Ethel Cain-style in its production – it is mysterious and almost peculiar and scary in its execution. It makes the listener wonder what’s coming next – but what they don’t expect is the switched-up yet equally as emotionally charged lyrics in the next track, “Fuck Me Eyes”.
The second single from the album, “Fuck Me Eyes”, is intimate, sensual, with layered vocals and an excellent bridge, which forms my favourite part of the synth-pop-style song. The lyrics themselves describe a promiscuous and potentially controversial, and conflicting character, possibly that of Ethel Cain. We know from “Preacher’s Daughter” and the track “Gibson Girl” in particular, that despite a religious background, the character of Ethel is no stranger to risk-taking and living a non-conventional life. “Fuck Me Eyes” describes drug and alcohol use, as well as engaging in sexual acts, and justifies them with lyrics such as the line “She’s just trying to feel good right now”.
The first single released along with the album’s announcement, “Nettles”, takes on a more personal note, describing themes of family relationships right from the first line – “We were in a race to grow up”. Touching on potentially sensitive topics such as health complications with the lines “The doctors gave you until the end of the night” and “Time passes slower in the flicker of the hospital line”, the song reflects this painful emotion so well. The song has additionally been out as a demo on Ethel Cain’s SoundCloud since 2021 – proving the album to be thought through carefully years before its release. “To love me is to suffer me” is my favourite line here, and one of my favourite lines throughout the album. With the consistent references to warfare throughout this album, I believe this song to possibly be paying tribute to Willoughby’s father going off to war.
The next instrumental track, “Willoughby’s Interlude”, closes off the first half of the album, in which the life of the character of Ethel Cain and her relationships with family and Willoughby Tucker are described. This is likely before she and Willoughby split up. This seven-minute track builds up extremely well yet again, and it reminds me of something that could play as a soundtrack for a movie. Closing off on a slower note, I imagine it's like a conclusion of Ethel and Willoughby’s relationship, as the male counterpart deals with the trauma of his father being away.
“Dust Bowl”, to me, screams nostalgia, in both positive and negative ways. Here, Ethel Cain is reflecting on the loss of her partner, Willoughby Tucker, while reminiscing on their memories – “All of Alabama laid out in front of your eyes / But all you could see was me”. Around the three-and-a-half-minute mark, the song picks up in its production, but this change lines up perfectly with the lyrics, which describe Willoughby’s father “smoking in Vietnam”, and later saying that Willoughby has been “Consumed by death” – whether this strictly reflects his death or not is unclear.
“A Knock At The Door” starts with some of the most beautiful vocals I have personally heard from Ethel so far. This track is particularly heavy in the themes it describes, discussing Willoughby’s father going back to war, and him not coping well with it. Ethel Cain herself has stated about the song that “Ethel laments Willoughby’s experiences, watching him lose more and more throughout the course of their relationship to the trials and tribulations of the real world” – and the listener can almost hear the vulnerability of this in Cain’s voice and the acoustic strings behind it. Though Ethel is losing her partner, she knows this is inevitable, given the trauma he has endured.
“Radio Towers”, the third instrumental from the album, features notable beeping in the background – similar to that of a vitals monitor at a hospital. With the previous themes of war, death, trauma and loss, I assume this is a precursor to Willoughby’s death or leaving in the next song, or yet again, a reference to his father.
“Tempest”, the second-last and also second-longest track on the album, continues with the same vitals beeping in the background that “Radio Towers” introduced. Ethel sees herself as “Young and naïve” and begs Willoughby to go “easy on [her]” when he leaves – physically, through death, or metaphorically, through breaking up. With the track being ten minutes long, it takes the listener through a diverse yet emotional journey, and the sadness that Ethel’s character feels translates onto these melodies. “Cause death, it takes too long” – Ethel states, later following with “Someone take me home / I wanna go home”, suggesting a feeling of discomfort and unfamiliarity. When considering the background of a possible hospital (and the vitals beeping in the beginning), it creates the imagery that Ethel hates the situation she’s in, and the loss she is facing does not help her.
The entire 15 minutes of “Waco, Texas” are a masterpiece and form an excellent closing track to the album. Here, it acknowledges that Willoughby and Ethel are able to pull through the problems in their relationships, losing themselves in each other while the world around them keeps spinning – until it doesn’t. Contextually, the song references the 1993 Waco Siege, still describing themes of warfare and conflict, such as the line “When this is over / Maybe then we’ll get some sleep”. Ethel wishes to settle down and live happily ever after with Willoughby, even mentioning she’s “been picking names for [their] children” and still believing in “Nebraska dreaming” – referencing the “Preacher’s Daughter” track, “A House in Nebraska”. However, she also knows that the world often has other plans.
Side note – the way Ethel Cain sings the line “Cause I’d rather die / Than be anything but your girl” and the start of the fourth verse, have personally healed something within me. Her voice is so angelic, and I am so happy this album is finally out.
I adore this album primarily for the way it maintained the core Ethel Cain musical style, whilst allowing her to continue experimenting with production and vocals. This album is raw, vulnerable, sensual, and explores sensitive yet necessary themes. Listening to it whilst knowing it is a prequel to her previous album helped me with analysing the meanings of each song, and I recommend all Ethel Cain fans to do the same upon listening.
As a huge long-term fan, I am always excited to see what the future holds for Ethel Cain, and to anyone new to her music, I hope this analysis is a good starting point for getting into the complex and rollercoaster of a journey with the Ethel Cain universe!
Magda’s Top Five:
Waco, Texas
Fuck Me Eyes
Janie
Nettles
Tempest
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