The Obscenity of Self in Ethel Cain’s ‘Punish’
Ethel Cain gives us a dark taste of her upcoming EP with her new single “Punish”
Ethel Cain has grown a steady, strong fanbase after her indie-pop, anti-war song “American Teenager” saw success on TikTok in 2022. With her new single “Punish,” Cain shows she’s not riding the popularity wave and is sticking to her guns as a dark lyricist and ambient music lover with “Punish.”
PHOTO BY SILKEN WEINBURG, SINGLE ARTWORK BY ETHEL CAIN
A creaky, gravelly swing set joined by slow piano chords open the song, immediately forcing us to accept Cain’s melancholy. The song’s opening invites us into the unsettling desolation of self-blame – which Cain is no stranger to sharing. With breathy, light vocals, Cain’s opening verses let us know right away the unsettling sickness she feels in herself:
“Whatever’s wrong with me
I will take to bed
I give in so easy
Nature chews on me
Little death-like lead
Poisonous and heavy”
The slow, pendulous swing set continues behind her verses, giving a similar effect to the borderline unintelligible vocals on “Ptolomaea” from 2022’s Preacher’s Daughter. There is an eeriness to the track, and upon first listen we’re unsure whether we’re hearing screams, words or noises. The complete unknown of the background makes sure we feel as uneasy as Cain does in this song. There’s a sort of malady that we’re experiencing alongside her.
We crawl into the chorus with no instrumental or vocal upheaval, just the stagnant melancholia we’ve felt thus far. The chorus perpetuates this feeling of being absorbed in your wrongdoings and pitfalls. There’s something distinctly wrong with Cain, something that has always been with her and seemingly can never be rid of:
“It has always been this way
It has always been this way
I am punished by love
I am punished by love”
She moves on with a reference to Gary Plauché, a Louisiana man who shot Jeffery Doucet for the killing and assault of his son, Jody Plauché. Cain calls her man “a natural Plauché, saying ‘You won’t forget this.’” He is a killer, in some way, whether being literal or figurative. Something he does weighs on her so heavily she says, “In the morning I will mar myself again.” Whatever the two have done together is terrible, past the point of no return.
“Only God knows, only God would believe
That I was an angel, but they made me leave”
The song reaches a turning point here, switching from quiet piano to noise. Accompanied by friends Vyva Melinkolya (lap steel, baritone guitar) and Matthew Tomasi (guitar), the trio creates the fall from grace described. The switch doesn’t feel tonal but is more like a musical manifestation of the horror that Cain has experienced. She’s no longer just thinking about what has happened but is reliving it. Repeating for the rest of the track are her choral lyrics, “I am punished by love,” which ride out with the ambient-inspired instrumentals and her signature airy, shifting vocalization.
“Punish” is a deeply immersive track that begs us to make ourselves small in a dark corner, so we can revel in our own obscenity, even if it’s Ethel Cain’s that we’re experiencing. By the song’s end, we cannot help but wonder if we’re punished too.
Ethel Cain’s new EP Perverts is set to be released on January 8, 2025.