“Punish” will arrive on Nov. 1 as the first single from the record, out Jan. 8
In just over three weeks, Ethel Cain will crack open the world of Perverts, her second studio album. The singer and songwriter announced the forthcoming record, out Jan. 8, alongside the title of its first single, “Punish,” which arrives Nov. 1. The artist, whose real name is Hayden Silas Anhedönia, shared the news of her sophomore LP along with its cover art on Instagram.
Perverts will mark the first full-length studio album from Anhedönia since 2022’s Preacher’s Daughter. She first began teasing the album on Instagram and Tumblr with grainy, black-and-white photos. Each image is captioned with a singular word, from “Apathy” and “Disruption” to “Curiosity” and “Assimilation.”
In 2023, Anhedönia detailed her upcoming album in an interview with Rolling Stone. She described it as dark and cold, sharing that it will focus on the story behind Ethel’s mother as she grapples with her daughter’s death. It’s a continuation of the narrative she has been exploring through the character of Ethel Cain across projects since 2018. She also already has plans in place for album number three, which will explore Ethel’s grandmother.
The storytelling part of making music, where she gets to paint graphic and, at times, thematically horrific narratives, is the side she most prefers. The parts that come with the rest of it — the touring and other public obligations — are further down on her list. “Maybe someday, if I can figure out a way that I can perform that is better for me, but the standard setup of, ‘Go out, be in front of a bunch of people’ — I don’t like to be in front of a bunch of people,” she told Rolling Stone. “I don’t like to be the center of attention 100 percent.”
Last month, Anhedönia performed at All Things Go festival. Shortly before that, she completed the Childish Behavior tour which began in May and wrapped in August.
