Ethel Cain has released the sprawling eight-minute single ‘Nettles’, which features synthesisers that she tracked down from a composer on Twin Peaks.
‘Nettles’ features on her upcoming second album, ‘Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You’, which she announced earlier this year. The forthcoming record will serve as a prequel to ‘Preacher’s Daughter’, and was preceded by this year’s ‘Perverts’ EP.
‘Nettles’ is a banjo-led eight-minute epic that sees her chronicle “a dream of losing the one you love, asking them to reassure you that it won’t come true and to dream, instead, of all the time you’ll have together as you grow old side by side.”
Listen to Ethel Cain’s ‘Nettles’ below.
Besides laying down vocals and the banjo, Cain also plays synthesisers, piano, electric, acoustic and bass guitars on the track. The song is also a tip of the hat to late director David Lynch‘s beloved series Twin Peaks.
On one of her art-focused accounts, Cain explained that bits of ‘Nettles’ was inspired by Twin Peaks, and that she hunted down the specific synthesisers that composer Angelo Badalamenti used to record the show’s classic theme song. The synthesisers are also seeming used elsewhere on the upcoming album.
“To everyone saying the intro reminds them of Twin Peaks; late last year I watched that video of Angelo Badalamenti explaining how he wrote Laura’s theme and loved it so much that I hunted down the synths he used for the Twin Peaks soundtrack and those are the ones I used for ‘Willoughby…’”, she wrote.
ethel cain used the same synths that angelo badalamenti used for the twin peaks soundtrack for her new album! pic.twitter.com/pnV9Td7XRC
— jam (@albertspath) June 4, 2025
Ethel Cain has also newly confirmed that her new album ‘Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You’ will release on August 8 – you can pre-save or pre-order the album here.
Following the album’s release, Cain is set to go on tour, which is set to be her biggest to date. She will play in venues including London’s Eventim Apollo, Paris’ L’Olympia, New York’s Radio City Music Hall, Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium, and Berkeley’s Greek Theater.
The US run will begin in August, while the UK trek begins in October. You can buy UK tickets here and US tickets here.
Cain’s last project ‘Perverts’ scored a four-star review from NME: “Casual fans may not last even three minutes. But for those who are willing to sit with its discomfort, ‘Perverts’ reveals hidden depths – the same way that eyes need time to adjust to low light. What it reflects is in the eye of the beholder.”
In April, Cain made history when she became the first openly trans artist to score a top 10 album in the US for her critically-acclaimed debut studio record, ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ – almost three years after its initial release in May 2022.
In other Ethel Cain-related news, she made headlines this year after sharing her thoughts on the high-profile murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson after he was shot dead outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024.
The killing led to a manhunt that lasted several days, with police eventually arresting Luigi Mangione, who was found carrying a three-page manifesto in which he criticised the American healthcare system. Cain expressed frustration with the healthcare system and said that while she wasn’t being “reactionary”, violence was “sometimes” the answer. “It’s simple,” she wrote. “You make them fear for their lives and hit them in the only place they hurt or nothing will ever get done.” She signed off the Instagram post with the hashtag “KillMoreCEOs”.
She was then met with a surge of backlash and criticism, mainly from conservatives and the right wing. Fox News even called for a boycott of the musician because of her “terrorist” and “depraved” comments.
