ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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The sound of self-loathing
EWAN KOTZ tunes into a chilling and subversive album that speaks for a splintered US, its political apathy and complicity in war-crimes
Ethel Cain performing at Gunnersbury Park in London, August 2023
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
Perverts
Ethel Cain
(Daughters of Cain)
PERVERTS is not an album. Or, at least, that’s what Floridian singer-songwriter Ethel Cain (Hayden Anhedonia) claims of her latest studio effort — despite its 90-minute runtime. Perhaps this is to distance it from the notably more accessible indie rock that has garnered her a cult following.
Here, Cain swaps breezy guitars for unnerving industrial ambience. Perverts is no easy listen — and in no way is this unintentional. Cain’s disillusionment with a fast-growing fanbase has long-indicated a desire to subvert expectations and experiment with underground influences.
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