On purpose
I’ve spent a lot of the last 3 weeks thinking about Ethel Cain’s latest release, Perverts. It’s an enthralling and intoxicating listen (subject matter notwithstanding). This album represents to me the power of music — that, outside the bounds of capitalism, music can abstractly express an idea or feeling so powerfully in a way that cannot be achieved by words themselves. This album has purpose – to express and explore perversion in a way that popular music cannot allow. Almost nobody with a record deal does this without huge risks, and almost no music released by major record labels has a purpose beyond brand loyalty and profit.
Most of the music I’ve released has been pent up for years, sitting on hard drives due to impostor syndrome. This music has always felt purposeful to me, and only more so since I’ve finally released it – it’s collectively a time capsule chronicling my development as a human being and partner, which I personally feel even more deeply than my listener because of the time it’s taken for these 3 albums I’ve released to be “done”. I see this project as purposeful – as a reflection and heightening of the emotional rollercoaster that is being part of an incredibly intelligent and deeply aware but somehow still “lost” generation.
Also: I’m slowing down my music release schedule a bit in 2025 and going to try my hand again — for the third time – at maintaining a biweekly newsletter.
