Ethel Cain’s Perverts (2025) and the role of the audience
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Ethel Cain’s new album, Perverts (2025), has sparked controversy among fans.
On January 8 of this year, Hayden Anhedönia, better known by the stage name Ethel Cain, released her sophomore album titled Perverts (2025). The album consists of nine tracks with a run time of 90 minutes. It was a massive diversion from Anhedönia’s debut album, Preacher’s Daughter (2022), which had a decidedly narrative structure propelled by storytelling, lyrical aspects, and musical mood shifts over its 13 tracks. Perverts (2025) is an album full of ambiance, drone, and sparse yet selective lyricism.
When the album was announced on Oct. 14, 2024, fans and the internet at large were taken aback. In the title alone, Perverts (2025) has already begun to stir up mixed feelings and time-old conversations about the morality of artistry, and it is easy to see why that is. A title like Perverts (2025) is immediately striking and evocative. Its classical connotations stir up a lew of negative notions. It left many feeling uncertain about the coming album, wondering if it was right or appropriate for Anhedönia to use these powerful words as an artist who takes a very openly liberal political stance. This questioning, though, this discomfort, Anhedönia feels, is part of the work this album sets out to do.
Anhedönia reveals in a Tumblr ask some of the album's central inspirations and quandaries, stating, “the og [original] concept for [Perverts] was a character study about different ‘perverts,’ inspired by reading Knockemstiff. a sex addict, a pedophile, an arsonist, a sedative addict, etc.”; adding in a different ask that, “there's no condemnation or mockery or bias on [Perverts] anywhere. i like objective portrayals. that way you can decide how you feel about it. do you feel shame in your pleasure or do you revel in it. do you know the line between right and wrong and do you know what side of it you're on? etc.”
The strangeness of the album, the audience’s fascination with the album in spite of, because of, this strangeness, is it not some kind of perversion too? She jumps fully into the array of interpretations possible in the word’s definition of “a person whose sexual behavior is regarded as abnormal and unacceptable.” We, as the audience, are then brought into this exploration. We stand as witnesses to the sensual and erotic nature of the album’s journey and mood as we consume each second. Through this, we gain insights into Anhedönia's artistic, personal expression of these thematic concerns. Even though we are invited to come alongside Anhedönia, does that strip the audience of the role it plays in becoming the “pervert?”
The album can also be viewed as a reaction to Anhedönia's growing fame. Her debut album held a track called “American Teenager,” which grew to be rather popular, brought with it a much bigger fanbase to this indie-alt artist. The idea of there being eyes, more eyes than had been anticipated, more eyes in a very short period of time, adds to it a different level of audience perversion.
An article by The Guardian referenced how, after the success of Preacher’s Daughter (2022), “[Anhedönia] protested at length about both the scale of her success, her popularity on social media and the intrusive nature of her most obsessive fans…”
In short, does this album seek to challenge the extremes of fandom, from the “fair-weather” fan to the obsessive? Calling into question how viewers think about artists and celebrities, alongside their perceptions, interactions, and “relationship” with their favorite artist. Do we feel shameful about the way we interact with our faves? Maybe a better question yet, should we?