Earlier this year, Ethel Cain announced the album Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You and said that it would arrive in August. She’s now confirmed that her Preacher’s Daughter follow-up is out on Friday, August 8. The lead single, “Nettles,” is out now. Listen to it below.
Ethel Cain wrote, produced, and mixed “Nettles.” She also played banjo, synthesizers, electric, acoustic, and bass guitars, and piano, sang vocals, and handled a good deal of the engineering. She’s joined on the track by banjo player and acoustic guitarist Dillon Hodges, drummer Bryan De Leon, electric guitarist Matthew Tomasi, fiddler Donny Carpenter, organist Steven Colyer, and pedal steel player Todd Beene.
In a statement about “Nettles” shared on social media, Cain wrote: “this was the very first song i ever wrote in the alabama house where i finally finished preacher’s daughter. i didn’t even realize what story i was writing yet but i think subconsciously, because i knew how preacher’s daughter was going to end, i wanted to go back in time to a moment of sweetness. i hope you enjoy the greenery, i love this song with all my heart ♡ (and all 10 versions of it across the past 4 years).”
Read Pitchfork’s review of Perverts, the experimental project that Ethel Cain released between her two studio albums.