Ethel Cain’s Nettles: A Beautiful Mix of Country Noir and Jazz

Ethel Cain, the stage name for Hayden Anhedönia, is a trans woman artist who has been on the musical map since her monster release Preacher’s Daughter. She has jumped around genre and form, but at her core her music has a dark noir quality. Nettles is a confluence of styles and tones that mix together in a beautiful melancholy haze. This track is exactly why I love Ethel Cain and why her music elevates the art form.

The track’s complexity starts with the musical arrangement and melding of genres. All of your noir country touchtones are here…haunting fiddle…hints of banjo accented by twangy electric guitar. However, this genre is stretched out into a personal dirge or jazz exploration. The way Cain stretches the song out not only plays with the song’s form and structure, but plays with your own expectations. Slowed down, the musicality takes on an epic and theatrical quality…like you are witnessing something important…something unique. Much like jazz, the music keeps you interested for the entire 8 plus minute run time as it twists and turns around Cain’s incomparable vocal.

Cain’s beautiful and fragile vocal explores death, identity, gender violence and connection. This is a complex song with a lot to say. You could take a surface reading and see it as someone at the side of a loved one dying in the hospital and reflecting on their lives…the good, the bad and the missed opportunities. A feeling of regret, sadness and a longing for more time permeates throughout the track. Another reading can point towards Cain’s trans experience, which she has written about before, and gender violence associated with transphobia. The verse “Made a fool of myself down on Tennessee Street / It wasn’t pretty like the movies/ It was ugly, like what they all did to me / And they did to me what I wouldn’t do to anyone.” Knowing Cain’s story, it is difficult not to read into this her not being accepted and possibly experiencing violence herself. Either way, the song has a personal and vulernable tone that makes it both highly evocative and also relatable.

Ethel Cain is a star on the rise and each record becomes more complex. She is quickly becoming a must hear artist where you can pick up the album totally cold and be pleasantly surprised. She is kicking off a world tour and I hope this brings in a bunch of new fans.

Listen to Nettles