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Photo: Silken Weinberg

Under the fitting eye of the new moon and changing seasons, Ethel Cain has released her latest stroke of genius, “Punish,” a nearly-seven minute single. 

The single comes with both the announcement of her forthcoming album, Perverts, set for release on January 8, 2025, and an equally unnerving and nostalgic music video. Woven of vocal delicacies that lullaby quandaries of murder, morality, and the double-sided sword of shame, “Punish” stretches the lightest and darkest reaches of Cain’s voice. Its depths indicate a 

“Punish” uses an artful hand to paint its opening landscape, dark and expansive in its atmospheric sound. Like the creak of a distant door or piano pedal, the song builds upon a room sound turned into a rhythm. Its horror-movie-soundtrack-reminiscence lays the perfect foundation for resonant piano chords and Cain’s heavily reverb-ed voice, which floats into “Punish” with a haunting first lyric, “Whatever’s wrong with me, I’ll take to bed.” With chromatic decorations coloring the melody, listeners are left wondering if the cavernous depths of the song point toward something sinister or comforting?

Cain then leads us into a crescendo, where a heartily distorted guitar enters the track, outlining the chord progression with a guttural punch of grit. There’s a gauzy curtain pulled across the back of the soundscape, like the echo of background vocals rather than the voices themselves. Angelic and soaring, the vocals are gifted a seamless antithesis with the shoegaze guitar and artful feedback squeals that Ethel Cain laces into the noise. 

The artist achieves a chant-like hypnotism in the cyclical exploration of “Punish,” signaling enrapturing expectations for her forthcoming album, Perverts. 

“I wonder how deep shame can run, and how unforgivable an act could be that I may still justify it in some bent way to make carrying it more bearable,” says Cain. “Would I tell myself it’s not my fault and I couldn’t help myself? Would anyone truly believe that? Would I?”

Watch the "Punish" video below: