Ethel Cain has released a new single, Nettles, taken from this summer’s Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You second album.
Ethel Cain has just unveiled a beautiful new single, Nettles.
The track is taken from the folk-pop musician’s forthcoming second album Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You – the follow-up to 2022 debut Preacher’s Daughter – which is due out on August 8.
“This song and the last track on the record were both written the same week, the very first week I moved into the house in Alabama where I finished Preacher’s Daughter,” Ethel explains. “In similar fashion to Preacher’s Daughter – specifically A House In Nebraska and Strangers – I wrote what essentially became the beginning and end of the story without realising it. What were originally just little vignettes of emotion I was feeling at the time ultimately became the tentpoles for a larger narrative.
“Nettles became 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. Every once in a blue moon, it feels good to slough off the macabre and to simply let love be.”
Ethel performs not only vocals on the single but also the banjo, synthesisers, piano, electric, acoustic guitar and bass, and even found Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti’s specific synths to use on Nettles (and the rest of the album, too).
“To everyone saying the intro reminds them of Twin Peaks,” Ethel posted as @puerariawine on Instagram, “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…”
Check out Nettles below:
Catch Ethel Cain live at the following:
Willoughby Tucker Forever 2025 tour dates
August
12 Paramount Theatre—Seattle, WA
13 Paramount Theatre—Seattle, WA
15 Queen Elizabeth Theatre—Vancouver, BC
16 Edgefield—Portland, OR
18 The Greek Berkeley—Berkeley, CA
20 Shrine Auditorium—Los Angeles, CA
22 Arizona Financial Theatre—Phoenix, AZ
24 The Bomb Factory—Dallas, TX
25 713 Music Hall—Houston, TX
26 Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park—Austin, TX
28 The Eastern—Atlanta, GA
29 The Eastern—Atlanta, GA
30 Asheville Yards—Asheville, NC
September
4 Stage AE —Pittsburgh, PA
5 The Anthem—Washington, D.C.
6 The Met—Philadelphia, PA
9 Radio City Music Hall—New York, NY
10 Kings Theatre—Brooklyn, NY
12 Roadrunner—Boston, MA
13 Outer Harbor Live at Terminal B—Buffalo, NY
15 Queen Elizabeth Theatre—Toronto, ON
16 Queen Elizabeth Theatre—Toronto, ON
17 Masonic Cathedral Theatre—Detroit, MI
19 Palace Theatre—St. Paul, MN
20 The Salt Shed (Fairgrounds)—Chicago, IL
October
2 O2 Apollo—Manchester, England
4 O2 Academy Glasgow—Glasgow, Scotland
9 Eventim Apollo—London, England
14 Ancienne Belgique—Brussels, Belgium
15 TivoliVredenburg—Utrecht, Netherlands
16 TivoliVredenburg—Utrecht, Netherlands
18 L’Olympia—Paris, France
21 Carlswerk Victoria—Cologne, Germany
23 Huxley's Neue Welt—Berlin, Germany
24 Docks—Hamburg, Germany
25 Vega—Copenhagen, Denmark
27 Sentrum Scene—Oslo, Norway
28 Fållan—Stockholm, Sweden
31 Stodola—Warsaw, Poland
November
1 Roxy—Prague, Czech Republic
2 Gasometer—Vienna, Austria
4 X-tra—Zurich, Switzerland
5 Alcatraz—Milan, Italy
7 Razzmatazz—Barcelona, Spain
8 Teatro Eslava—Madrid, Spain
9 LAV Warehouse—Lisbon, Portugal
Get your UK tour tickets here.
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