Ethel Cain – “Nettles”

Mere days after we named her January record Perverts one of the Best Albums Of 2025 So Far, Ethel Cain has officially begun the rollout for her next LP. We already knew it was called Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, and today she's revealed its release date for August 8, along with its lead single "Nettles."

According to a press release, Willoughby Tucker, I Will Always Love You is named for Ethel Cain's first love, Willoughby Tucker, and chronicles their romance -- though, since "Ethel Cain" is a bit of a persona in itself, we're still not 100% certain if Willoughby is a real person or if this is additional lore in her universe. Either way, the banjo ballad "Nettles" feels like the result of real love, an eight-minute epic that builds upon the dark Americana of her breakout album Preacher's Daughter, to which Willoughby Tucker, I Will Always Love You serves as a prequel. Ethel Cain says in a press release:

This song and the last track on the record were both written the same week, the very first week I moved into the house in Alabama where I finished Preacher’s Daughter. In similar fashion to Preacher’s Daughter (specifically "A House in Nebraska" and "Strangers"), I wrote what essentially became the beginning and end of the story without realizing it. What were originally just little vignettes of emotion I was feeling at the time ultimately became the tentpoles for a larger narrative. Nettles became a dream of losing the one you love, asking them to reassure you that it won’t come true and to dream, instead, of all the time you’ll have together as you grow old side by side. Every once in a blue moon, it feels good to slough off the macabre and to simply let love be.

Listen to "Nettles" below.

Willoughby Tucker, I Will Always Love You is out 8/8 on Daughters Of Cain.