ListeningMay 12, 2022
American Teenager
Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter is the highway record: church, motels, someone who kept the aux.
Preacher’s Daughter arrived and “American Teenager” was already stuck in the throat. Ethel Cain didn’t write a vibes album. She wrote a southern gothic you can drive: motels, diners, a Harley in a parking lot.
“Gibson Girl,” “Strangers,” “Sun Bleached Flies”: it’s long, and it should be. She came out, the church made it a problem, and the record treats that as weather, not a press angle. You don’t shuffle this. You take the highway at dusk and you let “Strangers” finish.