Not me saying "yeah girl, yeah" as she came to the realization about what happens in Strangers.... girl. You need to react to more music because i LOVE your takes, you're so empathetic and I love it.
the most empathetic reaction ive seen so far to this album. not only looking into the lyrics but analyzing the themes and ideas being discussed, not just brushing it off as being dark but discussing what brings people to these self destructive patterns and how hard it is to escape them. beautiful reaction.
Sun bleached flies is perhaps the best piece of music about religion I’ve ever heard. She captures the hopelessness of losing religion, and the sense of coming to terms with what comes afterwards in such a heartbreaking, painful, and yet, somehow hopeful, way. It’s just so beautiful.
I literally cannot get through that song without wanting to cry, no matter how many times I listen to it. Especially when it resolves back to House in Nebraska.
You were LITERALLY THE ONLY person who knew right from Thoroughfare that something bad was happening. EVERYONE gets caught by the melody and thinks is a love song. The fact you knew it INSTANTLY was INSANE. And knowing what Ptolomaea was about was INSANE. Your sensitivity trough all this amazed me so much. How you picked EVERY. LITTLE. DETAIL in this nightmare of a journey. Best react whit this album i have ever seen. This album changed me. It completely changed my perception about music, and how you can tell a story trough it. Knowing Ethel did all that by herself is INSANE. I think she would be so moved if she saw your video. Thank you so much for your courage sharing this with us. 🩵
I highly recommend checking out the demo. It was done by Ethels close friend Vyva Melinkolya/Angel Diaz (she also did a strangers demo). Vyva's production was changed days before Ethel sent in the album to her label to mix and process. She's said she kinda regrets this. The demo is just an instrumental but it hits so much harder. Ngl, so does Angel's version of strangers, and strangers official version is one of my fave Ethel songs.
i know a lot of people talk about the scream in ptolemaea, but something that sends the most shivers down my spine is the death rattle you hear towards the end
@@just.some.loser.. If you listen from the official visualizer audio, you can hear it best at 5:54! The gasps and rattles are played during the last half of the song, but if you listen to the isolated vocals, you can hear them much more clearly!
This is the best "Preacher's Daughter" reaction I've watched so far. Of course it wasn't good to watch someone be so triggered by it (like I was), but watching someone who only read about it once before and then understood which song and what it meant was so relatable. The way you immediatly understood "Throughfare" even though it was meant to be misleading in the way only a victim of abuse could understand was heartbreaking. Thanks for this, really. Great reaction
This is actually the best Preacher’s Daughter reaction I’ve seen on here, your sincerity and openness made this reaction so much more better and you’re one of the few people I’ve seen who reacted to this album who were able to pick on the subtle details and undertext especially of each songs in Thoroughfare since most people think it’s a happy song about freedom and finding true love when in reality it’s about Ethel (the character) getting kidnapped and developing stockholm syndrome, Hayden herself has said Ethel is an unreliable narrator. Oh and my favourite part is during the reaction of Strangers when you said “how could it possibly get worse” and it immediately got so much worse.
Timestamps ⭐️ 4:31 Family Tree (Intro) 7:32 American Teenager 12:10 A House in Nebraska 15:33 Western Nights 19:15 Family Tree 23:22 Hard Times 26:56 Thoroughfare 30:10 Gibson Girl 33:31 Ptolemaea 37:12 August Underground 38:37 Televangelism 40:18 Sun Bleached Flies 43:19 Strangers 49:57 Final Thoughts
your intuition during Thoroughfare was astounding ngl. if something seems too good to be true, that's usually bc it is, which we're quick to learn later in the album. as someone who also has some pretty severe religious trauma, i felt your reactions through the whole video. this album is both immensely triggering in some points, & immensely healing in others. "god loves you but not enough to save you" altered something in my brain chemistry frfr. i also agree with your closing thoughts about the importance of this album's popularity. the thing about great artists being overlooked is that it's often the best artists who are singing about important things. not to be all "mainstream music is all shallow & i'm too cool for that," but i do feel like artists who delve into heavier & uncomfortable topics like this get little attention bc a vast majority of people prefer music that's easy to listen to. in reality tho, people really should stop turning a blind eye to things (especially music) that aren't afraid to be painfully honest & raw about uncomfortable subjects, just bc it's important to be aware of the suffering of others. which is all to say, great reaction! take care of yourself, alright?
I loved your thoughts about Thoroughfare. The immediate skepticism when you heard she was hitchhiking and the red flag that went up... great intuition! The song has this air of freedom or liberation to it, but only when you're looking at it from Ethel's point of view because she's naive and hopeful and has only experienced love with explicit forms of violence. From the outside or after hearing the rest of the album, it makes it so much sadder because you know she's hopping into a stranger's vehicle and his violence is concealed, like he's completely taking advantage of her naivety. It's my absolute favorite on the album.
I think you're the most Ethel Cain-coded person to react to this album 🤣 Fr tho, I wanna thank you for sharing your reaction to this album. When you talked about being raised on the baptist church and spending your whole childhood searching for a connection with Jesus that never came... that hit me hard, that's literally where I get transported to every time I hear the lyrics of American Teenager 🖤🖤
i had the privledge of seeing this live and i made it through a house in nebraska without crying until she kept singing "i feel so alone." i moved states away for college and i just felt so alone and i truly felt as if she was singing that for me. beautiful reaction
She produced this all herself too. This album and the person behind it is an incredible talent. She might go the way of Lana Del Rey. Influential but seldom rewarded for it. I think future artists are going to look at Ethel Cain and revere her. She has plans for a lot more following this work.
"how it keeps getting worse" while tearing up on the third song girl................... knowing what was coming made me feel bad about it, loved how you not only listened but felt every track.
I was raised in the midwest, not the south, but as a queer child who was raised in the church, in a town of less than 250, I cannot express how identical my experience was with this album. The metaphors that paint this tragic story while simultaneously bringing feelings to a height they've never reached before as far as familial and religious traumas is terrifyingly beautiful. I commend you for being so vulnerable and sharing your experience listening to this. I feel seen, and I hope reading these comments and learning more of Ethel/Hayden's story makes you feel seen as well. 🥺🖤
It’s so beautiful and people to this day don’t realize Hayden is from a small rural town in Florida. Or that she’s queer. I’m deeply proud of her and happy for her. The area we’re from ain’t easy to exit, but she has a beautiful support system and a wonderful talent. They’ll never stamp us all out ❤
45:52 I was waiting for that connection to click.. Yeah in this track after killing her he has her body in a freezer & later starts eating her.. This album while soo incredibly sad/tragic is AMAZING as a concept album, laying out this very vivid story thru music.
This is the first video of yours I've ever seen, but I had to comment and tell you that your compassion is just life changing!! The way you reacted to the character Hayden created in this album from such a place of understanding was beautiful. So much kindness and love. I hear that accent so I know you are southern like me (I'm from West Virginia), and it's like you heard this album as if one of your own friends was telling you about it. You were rooting for her the entire time. I did too. Wanting to escape as a young girl from the bible belt is so relatable. The Preacher's Daughter story could've happened to any of us. That's why it's so moving. Thank you for such a personal reaction. Mine was the same.
that you connected so instantly to the story of a trans woman who felt compelled to leave her religious upbringing behind and write a fictional story about what her demise might have been means the world to a girl like me. you’re a true empath 🥺❤️
Truly one of the BEST reactions to Preacher’s Daughter. I love how quickly you were to connect with the lyrics and messages. Related with so many things you said here and cried along with you. Thanks for this!
Im about 20 yrs older than her but i connected with this album so deeply. I grew up in Florida in the southern baptist church. Im actually not surprised..when I go home it’s like a time capsule.
I just have to say that I have seen so so so many preachers daughter reaction videos (it is an obsession at this point) and you are the only one to truly GET IT at the first listen and without even having to read the backstory. It is just impressive you managed to understand the hitchhiking, pimping, murder and cannibalism all in one go (that part is usually were first-time listeners begin to stumble) and I hope you're doing well after being just bombarded with such strong feelings
i love this reaction, its so real. when you react to ptolomea, and describe your read on the events, i can feel it. the righteous anger . its good, to see someone have the gall to get angry at the idea of it
i loved your reaction. yes you got it down right! loved how you got the dante’s inferno thing. ptolemy is the layer in hell reserved for traitors/ betrayers. she felt like a traitor for choosing to leave her religious beliefs and life with her family to pursue a life of her own only to be met with a fate much worse. ultimately, isaiah, the guy who kidnapped her, pimped her out and then unalived her and ate her is the traitor. all the men in her life are traitors. ethel captured the female experience. always being devoured by men
I could see every bit of pain as you listened. It's so rare, brave, and beautiful to be this vulnerable. Not only to yourself BUT to put it online for hundreds of others to see. I'm so SO grateful to have seen this, you've absolutely touched me. I really hope you're able to find some healing, I could tell those scars run deep. Thank you!! Thank you for sharing!!!!
oh, this was such a vulnerable and beautiful reaction….thank you for sharing it. loved hearing your insights and seeing someone get as emotional as me listening to this album, lol. hayden (ethel) was raised southern baptist as well and has talked extensively about how growing up in that environment affected her in many ways. thank you again. hope you’re well. ❤️🩹
Your observations throughout the whole album were so on point, and I couldn't help but cry too in all the moments you did. This album really struck me at my core, and I felt like a changed person after experiencing it. No other album out there has captured much of the traumas and pain that I have experienced in life like this one has. The cautionary ending of the storyline gives me fucking chills because that very easily could have been me given the trajectory that I was once on as a lost and vulnerable teenager. I suspect that many of Ethel's fans feel similarly. Her music gives us a voice in an incredibly powerful and gripping way, albeit heart wrenching at the same time. The beauty is in the catharsis one experiences while listening to it. That's what makes Ethel Cain an incredible artist to me.
beautiful reaction. even as someone that has no religious trauma and did not grow up with any religion being enforced, the depth of ethel's lyrics still touch my soul in an unbelievable way (like many of us). there's a million and one things to highlight throughout the entire album, but the line "and jesus, if you're there, why do i feel alone in this room with you?" brings tears to my eyes everytime. i may not be able to understand it in a religious sense, but the idea of feeling completely and utterly alone when you have others around you and feeling wrong for feeling that way definitely hits in a big way. and thinking about it from her perspective, even though i can't necessarily relate, makes me ache for her and others that were put in a position to feel like you aren't allowed to feel lonely if you have jesus/god in your life without feeling like a failure as a human being is extremely devastating. thank you for being vulnerable and open about such a difficult topic/trauma to discuss. again, a truly beautiful reaction. ❤️
Loved the reaction and your vibe. This is the story as far as i know. Ethel is the preacher's daughter of a small town, she is in love with Willoughby Tucker (A House In Nebraska) Until he abandons her, she then meets Logan Phelps who gets killed by the police (Western Nights) then her dad dies (family tree) she talks about him s3xv4lly abusing her when she was a child (Hard Times) then she escapes and meets Isaiah and travel to California (Thoroughfare) then he prostitutes and drugs her (Gibson girl & Ptolemaea) then she runs into the woods and gets killed (August Underground) she then goes to heaven (Televangelism) from there she reflects on her life (Sun Bleached Flies) And well she then gets eaten by Isaiah and says her last goodbye to her mother (Strangers). Hayden (Ethel's real name) is currently working on two more musical projects related to the story, also a movie and a book. I hoped i helped you, sorry if any mistake, english is not my first lenguage🖤
“I really love that guitar. But hate what the song is about.” I felt that SO HARD. This album is truly art. It makes you feel very intensely, even if the feeling is discomfort and disgust and pain at what’s happening.
your reaction to this was so heart wrenching and resonant. it’s truly amazing how this album can speak to so many different kinds of religious trauma. i first listened to this album with my perspective of a non religious person who was raised in a small, heavily baptist southern community, and was ostracized by my peers and adults for not being raised within the church. this album brought to vivid center my memories of my friend and grandmother telling me that when i died my soul was going to be tortured for eternity, weeping for me as they talked. i was twelve. the whole second half of the album made me think of friends who were in abusive relationships because that was what they saw portrayed in their church. hayden’s story of ethel cain, even though it was written as a perspective of abuse and trauma stemming from the church, managed to reflect the hurt it causes to those outside of it. hayden really made a masterpiece of southern christian trauma here. ethel being consumed in the end feels to me like a direct metaphor for how ‘traditional christian women’ basically get consumed by their husbands or families. i’ll never get over the horror of realizing what happened in strangers, and then realizing after the context that it threw the whole album into. just absolutely stellar, gut punching writing.
So, I’m late to the party and just discovered this album a few days ago. Since then I’ve listened to it so many times and watched so many reaction videos and THIS was the one I needed to see the most. The way you instinctually knew that bad things were coming. I really appreciated seeing so much raw vulnerability and empathy. Thank you so much for sharing this piece of your heart with us. I seriously just want to give you the biggest hug.
This album will never fail to make me cry but I come back to it because I like the idea that we all cry for Ethel. Everyone around her failed her and now I listen to her story and weep for her struggles (ik she is not real but rip ethel cain all the same)
I've watched a lot of reactions to this album and this is by far one of my absolute favourites, I felt like I was listening to it again for the first time with you, thank you also sending so much love your way cause this is a heavy story and to relate to it in anyway is ROUGH
Your vid came up in my recommendations, and I'm glad I gave it a watch. This is one of my all time favorite albums, and I appreciate you connecting with the music and being vulnerable like this. Your insight is so appreciated
as many have said, this is my favorite preacher's daughter reaction i've seen. you really get it. absolutely heartbreaking, i think ethel cain is one of the best songwriters of our time, and i'm always so excited to see more people discovering her. great video :)
This is the first video of yours I've come across and it was an INSTANT sub for me. Your empathy and insight was both so refreshing and grounding. You're so good, SO good.
Dude,, you’re the ONLY person I’ve found that understood it as fast and as hard as I did the first time I listened. The way you caught on especially at parts that so many people overlook.
the way you were so quickly able to dissect the songs and put the story together was AMAZING! This whole video showcased how empathetic you are and you had me crying along with you 🥹
i cried with you every time you cried. this album means so much to me and i’ve watched so many reactions hoping to find one as raw and real as yours. thank you for being so open to the music and open about your feelings.
This was genuinely the BEST reaction I've seen to this album. The way you connected the story and responded so deeply was incredible. I loved listening to this with you.
I so deeply appreciate the immense amount of care and emotional energy you put into listening to this. I hope you took some time for yourself afterward. Thank you for sharing.
The first time I listened to preacher’s daughter I came out of it scared the shit out of me and it took me a long time to come back to it open minded to fully process the project. In my first listening revising it, I was so overwhelmed with the production that I didn’t caught even a little bit of the story, but I listened to it again and again, and I started to really comprehend I searched for more information. Dude, as if the fact that she produced this whole thing wasn’t insane enough, she build up this deeply tragic story, and you got it so easily in your first listen. That connection took me a while and a lot of thinking through, it’s magical how you were so reactive to it. Insane album, insane reaction, definitely the best one I ever watched, keep on doing it 🙏🏻
I'm half-way through the video and I already feel like I wanna give you a hug. I LOVE they way that you feel and I want to tell you that you are not alone! your reaction was so pure and authenthic thta you made me cry, because the way you shared of your past traumas... made me think of my own. Anyway, english is not my strongest, but I wanna say to you that even if you feel lonely at times, you are not alone. You always have people with you, even if those people are not in your life just yet
This reaction has to be my favorite from all i've watched. The way you somehow got the themes correct for everything was so impressive and I just loved this reaction tysm for sharing.
This is the first video of yours that I've seen. I'm so glad I watched it. Thank you for being so open and vulnerable. I love this album. It fucked me up mentally for a couple days after I listened to it the first time. I couldn't stop thinking about it.
I love watching these kinda videos cuz I grew up with eclectic music, was the record store girl growing up and stuff so I just like reliving music for the first time cuz I’ve just been so immersed in so much of it my entire life. Ethel Cain is new music for me though and came at such a hard time here in Fl.. and this reaction was so validating and cathartic in a way for me. Thank you for sharing for posterity!
For me this album is like The Divine Comedy by Dante. Its protagonist just goes through all that suffering, she meets the purgatory, the hell and finlly gets to the heaven where she finds the peace she was seeking for for her entire life. I genuinely think that Ethel used this poem as reference because it really seems like that. She lost her lover in a house in nebraska, and after this, each song is about how the protagonist is trying to find love. It's so heartbreaking, but at the same time it's beautiful
This was such a raw reaction I felt so seen! Also super impressed how you got the context of each song so quickly without even looking up genius for help
When asked if it just keeps getting worse during “House In Nebraska,” I laughed, nodded, and said into the air “the way out is through.” I think it’s especially great to watch live footage and or see them live because those are rooms full of people who have also experienced what you just went through, and I know for me it makes me feel better and even gives me hope. 🙏🏼☺️ Godspeed.
This was such a beautiful vulnerable video. Thank you so much for sharing these moments with us ❤ as a goofy side note, i cant help but think how much you look like alyssa sutherland from the new evil dead movie. Wishing you the best!!
you’re the only one that i’ve seen that gets it so quickly, and the picking up on the flies is also so well done of u!!! you’re also the only one i’ve seen that actually gets really emotional and i LOVE seeing people on here being so real and vulnerable because girl i cried as much as you did when i listened to this album the first time. much love to u!!!!
This album absolutely destroyed me, but it’s my favourite album of all time. There’s so much lore behind it so I thought I would share some of it + some theories song by song ❤️ I’ve written a whole document of annotated lyrics for my friends about the album so this’ll be a long comment hahaha. First just for context, Ethel Cain is a character portrayed by artist Hayden Silas Anhedönia, a 25 year old trans woman who grew up in a Southern Baptist family in Florida and whose father was a deacon. Preacher’s Daughter is set in 1991 and follows the story of Ethel Cain, a 20 year old girl from a small town in Alabama called Shady Grove. She recounts old loves, her troubled relationship with religion, her father (the titular preacher, Reverend Joseph Cain, beloved member of the community even 10 years after his death), and the tragic fate that befalls her when she finally runs away from her small, judgemental town. Ethel’s father died in a fire when she was 10, an important fact for a theory I’ll discuss later. Family Tree (Intro): Basically just setting the scene for the album with references to intergenerational & religious trauma and how Ethel believes she was doomed from the start. The lines “Jesus can always reject his father / But he cannot escape his mother’s blood” show Ethel feels that the abuse her mother faced (and her grandmother before her and so on) is ingrained in her blood and that she was never going to be able to live a life free of abuse herself. American Teenager: Hayden called this song an “anti-war, anti-patriotism fake pop song” and said in an interview, “I wrote this song as an expression of my frustration with all the things the ‘American Teenager’ is supposed to be but never had any real chance of becoming.” A House in Nebraska: Ethel reminisces about her ex-lover, Willoughby Tucker, who left town before the events of the album. She visits the abandoned house they would spend time in, imagining it was their own, somewhere far away from their hometown of Shady Grove, Alabama. The love they shared was sweet and kind and until he left town, he was the one man who had never hurt Ethel. Western Nights: Ethel is dating a new man named Logan Phelps who is less than kind and at times violent, but Ethel is so desperate for affection that she turns a blind eye. It’s important to point out the contradiction of the lines “I haven’t spoken to my daddy in a long, long time / I don’t want him to worry, always wondering if I’m alright” as her father has been dead for 10 years at this point. This is likely a coping mechanism, telling herself she’s avoiding her father to not upset him when really she will never be able to see him again. Family Tree: After the death of her boyfriend Logan in a police shootout following a bank robbery, Ethel finds herself on the run from the cops (this is all info from Ethel’s interviews, not from any songs in the album). During this time, she thinks back on the trauma she faced in childhood and the description of the song mentions a “disturbing family secret.” That always confused me because nothing really stood out to me in this particular song HOWEVER, I think this alludes to the idea that Ethel actually killed her father. Lyrics in this song and a couple of other songs lend credence to this, plus this entire song is about baptism and the washing away of sin. “Christ forgive these bones I’m hiding” at first comes off as a general hiding of secrets or sins, it could also be taken literally that she’s been hiding her involvement in her father’s death. “I’ve killed before and I’ll kill again / Take the noose of wrap it tight around my hand” basically saying that she’s taken the noose that was used to silence, belittle, and abuse her off of the “family tree” and that she’s using it as a weapon (possibly against her father). Finally, from Ptolemaea, “I was there in the dark when you spilled your first blood” and whether you interpret this line as being said by Death or just by Ethel’s subconscious, it’s yet another implication that Ethel has actually killed someone in the past. Hard Times: A tragic song describing the se*ual abuse her father inflicted upon her in her childhood and the conflicted feelings she has towards him as a result. Despite his abuse, Ethel admires the man her father was in their community and wishes that people would love her the way they did him. Thoroughfare: Ethel meets the charming Isaiah who offers her a ride. Together the drive from Texas to California and over the course of their trip, they find themselves attracted to one another, HOWEVER things aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. When Hayden was promoting this album, she shared a Missing Person poster of Ethel which stated, “Ethel was last seen Saturday, January 13 at 3:15am being forced into a black, short-bed pickup truck in the old Winn Dixie parking lot on Abrams Street in Arlington, Texas. A witness said a white man kidnapped her.” Isaiah drives a black pickup truck and he met Ethel in Texas. The theory is that the events of this song never actually happened and that it’s Ethel’s idealized version of events, the happy ending she always wanted, and that this idealized story is a way for her to cope with her tragic circumstances. Hayden herself has said that Ethel is an unreliable narrator which furthers this assumption. Gibson Girl: In California, Isaiah begins to pimp Ethel out and regularly feed her drugs and she begins to lose sense of reality. She has once again found herself in the hands of a violent man, yet she still yearns for his affection out of pure desperation. Ptolemaea: Under the influence of Isaiah’s drugs, Ethel begins to hallucinate. The title is inspired by Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (specifically Dante’s Inferno). Ptolemea, named after Ptolemy, is a circle of Hell in which the traitorous reside. The sound of flies in the background foreshadows her demise and in some sections of the song with the vocals isolated, you can actually hear Ethel begging for her life and choking. It doesn’t need much explanation since I think it’s pretty obvious, but Isaiah assaults and murders Ethel. August Underground: Ethel wastes away in the attic of an abandoned shack in Northern California. The title is a reference to the snuff film of the same name. This song represents the act of Death. At the end of the song, we hear something close and feet shuffling away. Isaiah has moved Ethel’s body into the freezer in the basement. Televangelism: Represents Ethel’s ascension to Heaven. Sun Bleached Flies: In Heaven, Ethel makes peace with her death and reflects on her life, family, and the man she never stopped loving, Willoughby. Strangers: Murdered and cannibalized by Isaiah, Ethel says her final goodbye to her mother. Although Ethel’s mother physically abused her, she knows that her mother was also a victim and thus forgives her transgressions. She would still “wait up with [her]”, referencing the previous line in the song when her mother realizes she’s missing. That’s all I got. This album is such an incredible and tragic piece of art and deserves so much more recognition!
wow, I could not wait for you to get to sun bleached flies and ptolemaea. and as someone who also grew up in the southern baptist church, this album is elite; there is no way to describe how much I love it. and hard times always leaves me SOBBING
The way that you understood this album so well on a first listen is insane you're the only reaction video of this album that immediately understood that thoroughfare was not a love song, that gibson girl was not a sexy song, and got the divine comedy reference in ptolemaea, the fact that he was killing her in ptolemaea, that he was eating her in strangers. No other reaction videos have gotten that on the first listen. Ethel would be proud of you, and also probably a bit concerned lol. This album was made for you omg
LOVEEEE how you captured and interpreted the message. The album is phenomenal and I'm glad to know that someone enjoys it this much (ps. You're really pretty
Sometimes it feels like art is made for a specific person and that feels like the case here- this is YOUR album. Watching you listen, makes it feel like this was made for you.
omg i remember your walking dead reactions! been obsessed with ethels music and seeing you again react to this album is so cool. its a beautiful album, definitely makes a lot of us feel seen. i love your honest reaction:)
I am absolutely begging you to give her other eps a listen, ‘Inbred’ and ‘Carpet Bed’ are also amazing! Maybe even her new single ‘Punish’ I am so invested in your thoughts on her art!
the whole time i kept thinking “wait til sun bleached flies”
Not me saying "yeah girl, yeah" as she came to the realization about what happens in Strangers.... girl. You need to react to more music because i LOVE your takes, you're so empathetic and I love it.
the most empathetic reaction ive seen so far to this album. not only looking into the lyrics but analyzing the themes and ideas being discussed, not just brushing it off as being dark but discussing what brings people to these self destructive patterns and how hard it is to escape them. beautiful reaction.
Sun bleached flies is perhaps the best piece of music about religion I’ve ever heard. She captures the hopelessness of losing religion, and the sense of coming to terms with what comes afterwards in such a heartbreaking, painful, and yet, somehow hopeful, way. It’s just so beautiful.
Sun bleached flies gotta be the best piece of music i have ever heard
I literally cannot get through that song without wanting to cry, no matter how many times I listen to it. Especially when it resolves back to House in Nebraska.
I'm currently entering that era and it's so scary, this song made me cry so hard.
You were LITERALLY THE ONLY person who knew right from Thoroughfare that something bad was happening. EVERYONE gets caught by the melody and thinks is a love song. The fact you knew it INSTANTLY was INSANE. And knowing what Ptolomaea was about was INSANE. Your sensitivity trough all this amazed me so much. How you picked EVERY. LITTLE. DETAIL in this nightmare of a journey. Best react whit this album i have ever seen. This album changed me. It completely changed my perception about music, and how you can tell a story trough it. Knowing Ethel did all that by herself is INSANE. I think she would be so moved if she saw your video. Thank you so much for your courage sharing this with us. 🩵
Exactly my thoughts! Most people don't even catch on that she gets killed OR eaten! Best reaction to this album I've seen.
Hard times messes me up the most. Its about her being s abused by her dad as a kid and omg I cried watching you react to it
I highly recommend checking out the demo. It was done by Ethels close friend Vyva Melinkolya/Angel Diaz (she also did a strangers demo). Vyva's production was changed days before Ethel sent in the album to her label to mix and process. She's said she kinda regrets this. The demo is just an instrumental but it hits so much harder. Ngl, so does Angel's version of strangers, and strangers official version is one of my fave Ethel songs.
i know a lot of people talk about the scream in ptolemaea, but something that sends the most shivers down my spine is the death rattle you hear towards the end
i know its there, but i cannot for the life of me hear it! is there a timestamp where you can hear it? which part?
@@just.some.loser.. If you listen from the official visualizer audio, you can hear it best at 5:54! The gasps and rattles are played during the last half of the song, but if you listen to the isolated vocals, you can hear them much more clearly!
@@b0nesaww ugh tysm
THIS was the type of ethel cain reaction i was looking for. keep it up!!
This is the best "Preacher's Daughter" reaction I've watched so far. Of course it wasn't good to watch someone be so triggered by it (like I was), but watching someone who only read about it once before and then understood which song and what it meant was so relatable.
The way you immediatly understood "Throughfare" even though it was meant to be misleading in the way only a victim of abuse could understand was heartbreaking.
Thanks for this, really. Great reaction
This album is literally a spiritual experience. I cried like a baby the whole way through
This is actually the best Preacher’s Daughter reaction I’ve seen on here, your sincerity and openness made this reaction so much more better and you’re one of the few people I’ve seen who reacted to this album who were able to pick on the subtle details and undertext especially of each songs in Thoroughfare since most people think it’s a happy song about freedom and finding true love when in reality it’s about Ethel (the character) getting kidnapped and developing stockholm syndrome, Hayden herself has said Ethel is an unreliable narrator. Oh and my favourite part is during the reaction of Strangers when you said “how could it possibly get worse” and it immediately got so much worse.
Timestamps ⭐️
4:31 Family Tree (Intro)
7:32 American Teenager
12:10 A House in Nebraska
15:33 Western Nights
19:15 Family Tree
23:22 Hard Times
26:56 Thoroughfare
30:10 Gibson Girl
33:31 Ptolemaea
37:12 August Underground
38:37 Televangelism
40:18 Sun Bleached Flies
43:19 Strangers
49:57 Final Thoughts
Thank you!
Ur awesome
The piano she is playing in televangelism is her (Hayden's) family's 120 year old piano
I knew it must be an antique! So beautiful! ❤
and the whole song was improvised by her! it wasn't written beforehand
your intuition during Thoroughfare was astounding ngl. if something seems too good to be true, that's usually bc it is, which we're quick to learn later in the album. as someone who also has some pretty severe religious trauma, i felt your reactions through the whole video. this album is both immensely triggering in some points, & immensely healing in others. "god loves you but not enough to save you" altered something in my brain chemistry frfr.
i also agree with your closing thoughts about the importance of this album's popularity. the thing about great artists being overlooked is that it's often the best artists who are singing about important things. not to be all "mainstream music is all shallow & i'm too cool for that," but i do feel like artists who delve into heavier & uncomfortable topics like this get little attention bc a vast majority of people prefer music that's easy to listen to. in reality tho, people really should stop turning a blind eye to things (especially music) that aren't afraid to be painfully honest & raw about uncomfortable subjects, just bc it's important to be aware of the suffering of others.
which is all to say, great reaction! take care of yourself, alright?
Your reaction to the first note of house in nebraska is so real😭💔
I loved your thoughts about Thoroughfare. The immediate skepticism when you heard she was hitchhiking and the red flag that went up... great intuition! The song has this air of freedom or liberation to it, but only when you're looking at it from Ethel's point of view because she's naive and hopeful and has only experienced love with explicit forms of violence. From the outside or after hearing the rest of the album, it makes it so much sadder because you know she's hopping into a stranger's vehicle and his violence is concealed, like he's completely taking advantage of her naivety. It's my absolute favorite on the album.
Shocked how well you understood the story without any context! Great reaction
She's making two more albums in this story. Preacher's Wife and Preacher's Mother
Omg, any news on when they may release??
@@Romanovs_x_1D nothing
@@derlis_whatever7033 :(
@@Romanovs_x_1Dit took Hayden about 4 years to do preachers daughter so it’ll likely be released 2-3 years from now
@@blueyeshadow2738 someone said she wasn't doing them😕
I think you're the most Ethel Cain-coded person to react to this album 🤣
Fr tho, I wanna thank you for sharing your reaction to this album. When you talked about being raised on the baptist church and spending your whole childhood searching for a connection with Jesus that never came... that hit me hard, that's literally where I get transported to every time I hear the lyrics of American Teenager 🖤🖤
i had the privledge of seeing this live and i made it through a house in nebraska without crying until she kept singing "i feel so alone." i moved states away for college and i just felt so alone and i truly felt as if she was singing that for me. beautiful reaction
She produced this all herself too. This album and the person behind it is an incredible talent. She might go the way of Lana Del Rey. Influential but seldom rewarded for it. I think future artists are going to look at Ethel Cain and revere her. She has plans for a lot more following this work.
happy im not the only one who reacted like this! everyone seemed so calm about the album and I was like WHAT
"how it keeps getting worse" while tearing up on the third song
girl................... knowing what was coming made me feel bad about it, loved how you not only listened but felt every track.
I was raised in the midwest, not the south, but as a queer child who was raised in the church, in a town of less than 250, I cannot express how identical my experience was with this album. The metaphors that paint this tragic story while simultaneously bringing feelings to a height they've never reached before as far as familial and religious traumas is terrifyingly beautiful. I commend you for being so vulnerable and sharing your experience listening to this. I feel seen, and I hope reading these comments and learning more of Ethel/Hayden's story makes you feel seen as well. 🥺🖤
It’s so beautiful and people to this day don’t realize Hayden is from a small rural town in Florida. Or that she’s queer. I’m deeply proud of her and happy for her. The area we’re from ain’t easy to exit, but she has a beautiful support system and a wonderful talent. They’ll never stamp us all out ❤
i hope you know you are seen. im so proud of you for still being here and being able to share part of your story.
Me too baby ❤ I feel that.
r.i.p. Ethel Cain you would've loved @shadie rae😔😔😔
@@Yukiblueviolett its because ethel is the girl on the album and Hayden is the singer , Basically ethel died in this album
@@Yukiblueviolettits just a joke going around like “rip __ you would have loved __” but also bc isiah kills ethel in the album lol
45:52 I was waiting for that connection to click.. Yeah in this track after killing her he has her body in a freezer & later starts eating her..
This album while soo incredibly sad/tragic is AMAZING as a concept album, laying out this very vivid story thru music.
This is the first video of yours I've ever seen, but I had to comment and tell you that your compassion is just life changing!! The way you reacted to the character Hayden created in this album from such a place of understanding was beautiful. So much kindness and love. I hear that accent so I know you are southern like me (I'm from West Virginia), and it's like you heard this album as if one of your own friends was telling you about it. You were rooting for her the entire time. I did too. Wanting to escape as a young girl from the bible belt is so relatable. The Preacher's Daughter story could've happened to any of us. That's why it's so moving. Thank you for such a personal reaction. Mine was the same.
that you connected so instantly to the story of a trans woman who felt compelled to leave her religious upbringing behind and write a fictional story about what her demise might have been means the world to a girl like me. you’re a true empath 🥺❤️
Truly one of the BEST reactions to Preacher’s Daughter. I love how quickly you were to connect with the lyrics and messages. Related with so many things you said here and cried along with you. Thanks for this!
Your insight on Thoroughfare is great! Since it confuses other listeners, you see through the facade and sense the danger.
Im about 20 yrs older than her but i connected with this album so deeply. I grew up in Florida in the southern baptist church. Im actually not surprised..when I go home it’s like a time capsule.
"I love that fucking guitar man" mood
One of the best reactions I've seen to this album. Thank you for your contribution!
I just have to say that I have seen so so so many preachers daughter reaction videos (it is an obsession at this point) and you are the only one to truly GET IT at the first listen and without even having to read the backstory. It is just impressive you managed to understand the hitchhiking, pimping, murder and cannibalism all in one go (that part is usually were first-time listeners begin to stumble) and I hope you're doing well after being just bombarded with such strong feelings
i love this reaction, its so real. when you react to ptolomea, and describe your read on the events, i can feel it. the righteous anger . its good, to see someone have the gall to get angry at the idea of it
Sunbleached flies and strangers got me... he really did hid her body inside the refrigerator to devour her
i loved your reaction. yes you got it down right! loved how you got the dante’s inferno thing. ptolemy is the layer in hell reserved for traitors/ betrayers. she felt like a traitor for choosing to leave her religious beliefs and life with her family to pursue a life of her own only to be met with a fate much worse. ultimately, isaiah, the guy who kidnapped her, pimped her out and then unalived her and ate her is the traitor. all the men in her life are traitors. ethel captured the female experience. always being devoured by men
This was definitely one of your more emotional videos, and that look at around 45:25 felt like you had a real epiphany there.
I could see every bit of pain as you listened. It's so rare, brave, and beautiful to be this vulnerable. Not only to yourself BUT to put it online for hundreds of others to see. I'm so SO grateful to have seen this, you've absolutely touched me. I really hope you're able to find some healing, I could tell those scars run deep. Thank you!! Thank you for sharing!!!!
oh, this was such a vulnerable and beautiful reaction….thank you for sharing it. loved hearing your insights and seeing someone get as emotional as me listening to this album, lol. hayden (ethel) was raised southern baptist as well and has talked extensively about how growing up in that environment affected her in many ways. thank you again. hope you’re well. ❤️🩹
and yes, us military still deliberately preys on the country’s most vulnerable to go do violence in other countries. it’s sickening.
Your observations throughout the whole album were so on point, and I couldn't help but cry too in all the moments you did. This album really struck me at my core, and I felt like a changed person after experiencing it. No other album out there has captured much of the traumas and pain that I have experienced in life like this one has. The cautionary ending of the storyline gives me fucking chills because that very easily could have been me given the trajectory that I was once on as a lost and vulnerable teenager. I suspect that many of Ethel's fans feel similarly. Her music gives us a voice in an incredibly powerful and gripping way, albeit heart wrenching at the same time. The beauty is in the catharsis one experiences while listening to it. That's what makes Ethel Cain an incredible artist to me.
beautiful reaction. even as someone that has no religious trauma and did not grow up with any religion being enforced, the depth of ethel's lyrics still touch my soul in an unbelievable way (like many of us). there's a million and one things to highlight throughout the entire album, but the line "and jesus, if you're there, why do i feel alone in this room with you?" brings tears to my eyes everytime. i may not be able to understand it in a religious sense, but the idea of feeling completely and utterly alone when you have others around you and feeling wrong for feeling that way definitely hits in a big way. and thinking about it from her perspective, even though i can't necessarily relate, makes me ache for her and others that were put in a position to feel like you aren't allowed to feel lonely if you have jesus/god in your life without feeling like a failure as a human being is extremely devastating. thank you for being vulnerable and open about such a difficult topic/trauma to discuss. again, a truly beautiful reaction. ❤️
Your sincerity and openness to us is what makes your channel so damn awesome. You are awesome.
Sincerity is good but beware of being too open for some people can't be trusted
Loved the reaction and your vibe. This is the story as far as i know.
Ethel is the preacher's daughter of a small town, she is in love with Willoughby Tucker (A House In Nebraska) Until he abandons her, she then meets Logan Phelps who gets killed by the police (Western Nights) then her dad dies (family tree) she talks about him s3xv4lly abusing her when she was a child (Hard Times) then she escapes and meets Isaiah and travel to California (Thoroughfare) then he prostitutes and drugs her (Gibson girl & Ptolemaea) then she runs into the woods and gets killed (August Underground) she then goes to heaven (Televangelism) from there she reflects on her life (Sun Bleached Flies) And well she then gets eaten by Isaiah and says her last goodbye to her mother (Strangers). Hayden (Ethel's real name) is currently working on two more musical projects related to the story, also a movie and a book. I hoped i helped you, sorry if any mistake, english is not my first lenguage🖤
Is the name “august underground” a reference to the movies? If they count as movies lol
@@CrayonEater5000yep!
Well her dad died ten years before the events of preachers daughter when she was around 10 and she’s remembering her childhood
@@blueyeshadow2738yup!
hayden actually did grow up southern baptist! very spot on
“I really love that guitar. But hate what the song is about.” I felt that SO HARD. This album is truly art. It makes you feel very intensely, even if the feeling is discomfort and disgust and pain at what’s happening.
your reaction to this was so heart wrenching and resonant. it’s truly amazing how this album can speak to so many different kinds of religious trauma. i first listened to this album with my perspective of a non religious person who was raised in a small, heavily baptist southern community, and was ostracized by my peers and adults for not being raised within the church. this album brought to vivid center my memories of my friend and grandmother telling me that when i died my soul was going to be tortured for eternity, weeping for me as they talked. i was twelve. the whole second half of the album made me think of friends who were in abusive relationships because that was what they saw portrayed in their church.
hayden’s story of ethel cain, even though it was written as a perspective of abuse and trauma stemming from the church, managed to reflect the hurt it causes to those outside of it. hayden really made a masterpiece of southern christian trauma here. ethel being consumed in the end feels to me like a direct metaphor for how ‘traditional christian women’ basically get consumed by their husbands or families. i’ll never get over the horror of realizing what happened in strangers, and then realizing after the context that it threw the whole album into. just absolutely stellar, gut punching writing.
hearing the first note of house in nebraska and going "oh my god😨" is so real!
So, I’m late to the party and just discovered this album a few days ago. Since then I’ve listened to it so many times and watched so many reaction videos and THIS was the one I needed to see the most. The way you instinctually knew that bad things were coming. I really appreciated seeing so much raw vulnerability and empathy. Thank you so much for sharing this piece of your heart with us. I seriously just want to give you the biggest hug.
I love how raw and horrid the whole album is. heaven sent, full of lore and pain. my religious trauma was solved entirely. (almost)
This album will never fail to make me cry but I come back to it because I like the idea that we all cry for Ethel. Everyone around her failed her and now I listen to her story and weep for her struggles (ik she is not real but rip ethel cain all the same)
You seem like such a beautiful & gentle soul, loved your reaction.
out of all the album reactions ive seen ive never wanted to hug someone more omg.. and we're just at the 3rd song
I LOVE how you immediately caught on to what was happening in the story from Thoroughfare
ethel cain is everything to me.
I've watched a lot of reactions to this album and this is by far one of my absolute favourites, I felt like I was listening to it again for the first time with you, thank you
also sending so much love your way cause this is a heavy story and to relate to it in anyway is ROUGH
NEVER SEEN A BETTER REACTOION.
you made incredible connections that i hadn’t seen anybody else make and you interpreted it SO well, great reaction.
I’m gay but you are stunning and I love how empathetic you are to some of these songs.
This album was one of best "concepts" i have heard.
Dark, haunting, and beautiful.
It really can open wounds.
Your vid came up in my recommendations, and I'm glad I gave it a watch. This is one of my all time favorite albums, and I appreciate you connecting with the music and being vulnerable like this. Your insight is so appreciated
Also SO STOKED to see someone else understand what Ptolemaea was a reference to (that is also my favorite track on the entire album 😂)
as many have said, this is my favorite preacher's daughter reaction i've seen. you really get it. absolutely heartbreaking, i think ethel cain is one of the best songwriters of our time, and i'm always so excited to see more people discovering her. great video :)
my favorite ethel reaction.
This is the first video of yours I've come across and it was an INSTANT sub for me. Your empathy and insight was both so refreshing and grounding. You're so good, SO good.
this is probably one of the realest reaction video ever. cuz this is literally how i was first time listening
Dude,, you’re the ONLY person I’ve found that understood it as fast and as hard as I did the first time I listened. The way you caught on especially at parts that so many people overlook.
the way you were so quickly able to dissect the songs and put the story together was AMAZING! This whole video showcased how empathetic you are and you had me crying along with you 🥹
Great reaction. THis album hurt so bad at first but I loved it so much. She explained so much of the hurt I felt through out my life
i cried with you every time you cried. this album means so much to me and i’ve watched so many reactions hoping to find one as raw and real as yours. thank you for being so open to the music and open about your feelings.
This was genuinely the BEST reaction I've seen to this album. The way you connected the story and responded so deeply was incredible. I loved listening to this with you.
ur so intelligent. also a RADIANT human being your energy is intoxicating, beautiful
in all ways
I so deeply appreciate the immense amount of care and emotional energy you put into listening to this. I hope you took some time for yourself afterward. Thank you for sharing.
The first time I listened to preacher’s daughter I came out of it scared the shit out of me and it took me a long time to come back to it open minded to fully process the project. In my first listening revising it, I was so overwhelmed with the production that I didn’t caught even a little bit of the story, but I listened to it again and again, and I started to really comprehend I searched for more information. Dude, as if the fact that she produced this whole thing wasn’t insane enough, she build up this deeply tragic story, and you got it so easily in your first listen. That connection took me a while and a lot of thinking through, it’s magical how you were so reactive to it. Insane album, insane reaction, definitely the best one I ever watched, keep on doing it 🙏🏻
The album is amazing and I send you a big hug Shadie 🖤
I'm half-way through the video and I already feel like I wanna give you a hug. I LOVE they way that you feel and I want to tell you that you are not alone! your reaction was so pure and authenthic thta you made me cry, because the way you shared of your past traumas... made me think of my own. Anyway, english is not my strongest, but I wanna say to you that even if you feel lonely at times, you are not alone. You always have people with you, even if those people are not in your life just yet
This reaction has to be my favorite from all i've watched. The way you somehow got the themes correct for everything was so impressive and I just loved this reaction tysm for sharing.
This is the first video of yours that I've seen. I'm so glad I watched it. Thank you for being so open and vulnerable. I love this album. It fucked me up mentally for a couple days after I listened to it the first time. I couldn't stop thinking about it.
I love watching these kinda videos cuz I grew up with eclectic music, was the record store girl growing up and stuff so I just like reliving music for the first time cuz I’ve just been so immersed in so much of it my entire life.
Ethel Cain is new music for me though and came at such a hard time here in Fl.. and this reaction was so validating and cathartic in a way for me. Thank you for sharing for posterity!
For me this album is like The Divine Comedy by Dante. Its protagonist just goes through all that suffering, she meets the purgatory, the hell and finlly gets to the heaven where she finds the peace she was seeking for for her entire life. I genuinely think that Ethel used this poem as reference because it really seems like that. She lost her lover in a house in nebraska, and after this, each song is about how the protagonist is trying to find love. It's so heartbreaking, but at the same time it's beautiful
This was such a raw reaction I felt so seen! Also super impressed how you got the context of each song so quickly without even looking up genius for help
THIS GIRL IS SO REAL 4 THIS 😭
One of the best reactions to this album I’ve seen. Thank you for sharing yourself with us and really listening to the music. ❤
I really appreciate your perspective on this and relate to your experiences of growing up in the south and the role of the military preying on kids
This is the best album reaction video I’ve ever seen
When asked if it just keeps getting worse during “House In Nebraska,” I laughed, nodded, and said into the air “the way out is through.” I think it’s especially great to watch live footage and or see them live because those are rooms full of people who have also experienced what you just went through, and I know for me it makes me feel better and even gives me hope. 🙏🏼☺️ Godspeed.
This was such a beautiful vulnerable video. Thank you so much for sharing these moments with us ❤ as a goofy side note, i cant help but think how much you look like alyssa sutherland from the new evil dead movie. Wishing you the best!!
you’re the only one that i’ve seen that gets it so quickly, and the picking up on the flies is also so well done of u!!! you’re also the only one i’ve seen that actually gets really emotional and i LOVE seeing people on here being so real and vulnerable because girl i cried as much as you did when i listened to this album the first time. much love to u!!!!
This was exactly my reaction 😭
Sending you a big virtual hug!
This album absolutely destroyed me, but it’s my favourite album of all time. There’s so much lore behind it so I thought I would share some of it + some theories song by song ❤️ I’ve written a whole document of annotated lyrics for my friends about the album so this’ll be a long comment hahaha. First just for context, Ethel Cain is a character portrayed by artist Hayden Silas Anhedönia, a 25 year old trans woman who grew up in a Southern Baptist family in Florida and whose father was a deacon. Preacher’s Daughter is set in 1991 and follows the story of Ethel Cain, a 20 year old girl from a small town in Alabama called Shady Grove. She recounts old loves, her troubled relationship with religion, her father (the titular preacher, Reverend Joseph Cain, beloved member of the community even 10 years after his death), and the tragic fate that befalls her when she finally runs away from her small, judgemental town. Ethel’s father died in a fire when she was 10, an important fact for a theory I’ll discuss later.
Family Tree (Intro): Basically just setting the scene for the album with references to intergenerational & religious trauma and how Ethel believes she was doomed from the start. The lines “Jesus can always reject his father / But he cannot escape his mother’s blood” show Ethel feels that the abuse her mother faced (and her grandmother before her and so on) is ingrained in her blood and that she was never going to be able to live a life free of abuse herself.
American Teenager: Hayden called this song an “anti-war, anti-patriotism fake pop song” and said in an interview, “I wrote this song as an expression of my frustration with all the things the ‘American Teenager’ is supposed to be but never had any real chance of becoming.”
A House in Nebraska: Ethel reminisces about her ex-lover, Willoughby Tucker, who left town before the events of the album. She visits the abandoned house they would spend time in, imagining it was their own, somewhere far away from their hometown of Shady Grove, Alabama. The love they shared was sweet and kind and until he left town, he was the one man who had never hurt Ethel.
Western Nights: Ethel is dating a new man named Logan Phelps who is less than kind and at times violent, but Ethel is so desperate for affection that she turns a blind eye. It’s important to point out the contradiction of the lines “I haven’t spoken to my daddy in a long, long time / I don’t want him to worry, always wondering if I’m alright” as her father has been dead for 10 years at this point. This is likely a coping mechanism, telling herself she’s avoiding her father to not upset him when really she will never be able to see him again.
Family Tree: After the death of her boyfriend Logan in a police shootout following a bank robbery, Ethel finds herself on the run from the cops (this is all info from Ethel’s interviews, not from any songs in the album). During this time, she thinks back on the trauma she faced in childhood and the description of the song mentions a “disturbing family secret.” That always confused me because nothing really stood out to me in this particular song HOWEVER, I think this alludes to the idea that Ethel actually killed her father. Lyrics in this song and a couple of other songs lend credence to this, plus this entire song is about baptism and the washing away of sin. “Christ forgive these bones I’m hiding” at first comes off as a general hiding of secrets or sins, it could also be taken literally that she’s been hiding her involvement in her father’s death. “I’ve killed before and I’ll kill again / Take the noose of wrap it tight around my hand” basically saying that she’s taken the noose that was used to silence, belittle, and abuse her off of the “family tree” and that she’s using it as a weapon (possibly against her father). Finally, from Ptolemaea, “I was there in the dark when you spilled your first blood” and whether you interpret this line as being said by Death or just by Ethel’s subconscious, it’s yet another implication that Ethel has actually killed someone in the past.
Hard Times: A tragic song describing the se*ual abuse her father inflicted upon her in her childhood and the conflicted feelings she has towards him as a result. Despite his abuse, Ethel admires the man her father was in their community and wishes that people would love her the way they did him.
Thoroughfare: Ethel meets the charming Isaiah who offers her a ride. Together the drive from Texas to California and over the course of their trip, they find themselves attracted to one another, HOWEVER things aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. When Hayden was promoting this album, she shared a Missing Person poster of Ethel which stated, “Ethel was last seen Saturday, January 13 at 3:15am being forced into a black, short-bed pickup truck in the old Winn Dixie parking lot on Abrams Street in Arlington, Texas. A witness said a white man kidnapped her.” Isaiah drives a black pickup truck and he met Ethel in Texas. The theory is that the events of this song never actually happened and that it’s Ethel’s idealized version of events, the happy ending she always wanted, and that this idealized story is a way for her to cope with her tragic circumstances. Hayden herself has said that Ethel is an unreliable narrator which furthers this assumption.
Gibson Girl: In California, Isaiah begins to pimp Ethel out and regularly feed her drugs and she begins to lose sense of reality. She has once again found herself in the hands of a violent man, yet she still yearns for his affection out of pure desperation.
Ptolemaea: Under the influence of Isaiah’s drugs, Ethel begins to hallucinate. The title is inspired by Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (specifically Dante’s Inferno). Ptolemea, named after Ptolemy, is a circle of Hell in which the traitorous reside. The sound of flies in the background foreshadows her demise and in some sections of the song with the vocals isolated, you can actually hear Ethel begging for her life and choking. It doesn’t need much explanation since I think it’s pretty obvious, but Isaiah assaults and murders Ethel.
August Underground: Ethel wastes away in the attic of an abandoned shack in Northern California. The title is a reference to the snuff film of the same name. This song represents the act of Death. At the end of the song, we hear something close and feet shuffling away. Isaiah has moved Ethel’s body into the freezer in the basement.
Televangelism: Represents Ethel’s ascension to Heaven.
Sun Bleached Flies: In Heaven, Ethel makes peace with her death and reflects on her life, family, and the man she never stopped loving, Willoughby.
Strangers: Murdered and cannibalized by Isaiah, Ethel says her final goodbye to her mother. Although Ethel’s mother physically abused her, she knows that her mother was also a victim and thus forgives her transgressions. She would still “wait up with [her]”, referencing the previous line in the song when her mother realizes she’s missing.
That’s all I got. This album is such an incredible and tragic piece of art and deserves so much more recognition!
wow, I could not wait for you to get to sun bleached flies and ptolemaea. and as someone who also grew up in the southern baptist church, this album is elite; there is no way to describe how much I love it. and hard times always leaves me SOBBING
BEST REACTION EVER THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS
The way that you understood this album so well on a first listen is insane you're the only reaction video of this album that immediately understood that thoroughfare was not a love song, that gibson girl was not a sexy song, and got the divine comedy reference in ptolemaea, the fact that he was killing her in ptolemaea, that he was eating her in strangers. No other reaction videos have gotten that on the first listen. Ethel would be proud of you, and also probably a bit concerned lol. This album was made for you omg
its been a sec since ive really cried to this album so it was nice watching this and feeling all the things again 🥲
this was such a beautiful reaction. so glad you let us go on this journey with you, i really enjoyed your commentary ❤❤😭😭
LOVEEEE how you captured and interpreted the message. The album is phenomenal and I'm glad to know that someone enjoys it this much (ps. You're really pretty
Sometimes it feels like art is made for a specific person and that feels like the case here- this is YOUR album. Watching you listen, makes it feel like this was made for you.
omg i remember your walking dead reactions! been obsessed with ethels music and seeing you again react to this album is so cool. its a beautiful album, definitely makes a lot of us feel seen. i love your honest reaction:)
OMG girl I love you 😭😭😭😭😭😭
thanks for this video ✨ i’m going thru a deconstruction/deconversion from christianity rn and your video helped me cope a bit
I am absolutely begging you to give her other eps a listen, ‘Inbred’ and ‘Carpet Bed’ are also amazing! Maybe even her new single ‘Punish’ I am so invested in your thoughts on her art!