On August 8, Ethel Cain released her highly anticipated fourth studio album titled “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You.” The narrative concept album is a prequel to her previous, highly acclaimed work, “Preacher’s Daughter.”

“Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You,” has been very well received despite its roll-out being colored with more controversy than Cain has ever faced before: Public beef with Americana’s biggest pop star and recent alligator swamp tour guide, Lana Del Rey. 

 Ethel Cain’s early career

Hayden Silas started releasing music under various aliases in 2017. In 2020, she was signed to Prescription Songs after the release of her first EP, “Carpet Bed.” In 2021, she released her first studio album under the name Ethel Cain, “Inbred.” Although “Inbred” gained a cult following, Cain did not get mainstream recognition until 2022, when she released her sophomore album, “Preacher’s Daughter.” 

“Preacher’s Daughter” solidified Ethel Cain’s name in the alternative music scene, gaining her notoriety for production and lyricism. “American Teenager” from “Preacher’s Daughter” became Cain’s most listened to song, gaining praise from former president Barack Obama on his annual end-of-year cultural round-up playlist. 

Similarities with Lana 

From the beginning of her career, Ethel Cain has always been relentlessly compared to the much more famous Lizzy Grant, AKA Lana Del Rey. Their fan bases overlap significantly, and their works are similar in theme. Both artists submerge themselves into the American malaise, periods, and areas of widespread economic decline, despite promises of the American dream. 

Lana’s discography romanticizes the mundane and debases the glamorous. Cain’s music shares a similar effect, bringing gentle, sultry ambiance to tragic stories set in the impoverished American South. Both Lana and Ethel have extremely cohesive aesthetics surrounding their music, which fans often compare. They share a Tumblr-chic, cigarette-coquette blend of pain transfixed with beauty.

What makes them different is that Ethel replaces Lana’s old Hollywood, heart-shaped sunglasses, convertible-cliques with small-town American catholic wooden crosses and gothic nun habits with hand tattoos.  Their aesthetics are impressively distinct and cease to overlap with anything but each other. 

Ethel Cain has stayed consistent in her resentment toward comparisons regarding Lana Del Rey. She posted about this multiple times during her early career, calling these comparisons reductive and saying, “If you compare me to Lana Del Rey, I’m literally not reading your shit.” 

These statements were hard to consider real shade at the time, as Lana was still much more well-known than Ethel. Even today, Lana is Ethel Cain’s mainstream pop star alternate while Ethel remains beloved by an expansive but particular fandom. Ethel Cain’s discography features shameless exploration into societal taboos and multiple songs that are only comprised of ambient noise. Lana del Rey, on the other hand, has much more mainstream appeal, working consistently with pop-industry robot and husband of Margaret Qualley, Jack Antonoff. 

All about Ethel 

Ethel’s comments went unaddressed until Lana dropped a bomb in early August of this year in the form of a song snippet. Lana is in the middle of a highly anticipated and long-ongoing album rollout. She first promised a country album titled “Lasso” at the NMPA Songwriter Awards on January 31, 2024. Since then, the album has gone through three name changes. On August 26, Lana Del Rey announced that the album is officially called “Stove.”

On August 13, Lana posted a snippet of a song from “Stove.” This song has been informally named “All About Ethel” by fans, as the lyrics that Lana was seen lip-syncing behind a weird Instagram filter were undeniably all about Ethel. Hours after the snippet was posted, Ethel Cain confirmed via Instagram stories that Lana Del Rey blocked her on Instagram. 

The All About Ethel snippet is an unwarranted diss track that proves how little Lana Del Rey understands Ethel Cain or perhaps even the modern internet. The lyrics address unserious Ethel Cain Reddit posts from 2022, in which the singer said she would “Absolutely not” work with Lana Del Rey’s producer, Jack Antonoff. 

The lines also accuse Ethel of dating Lana’s ex, Jack Donoghue, whom Ethel never dated. Most notably, Lana calls herself “the most famous girl at the waffle house,” referencing a 2022 New York Times interview about Ethel Cain. In 2023, pictures of Lana inexplicably working a Waffle House shift at a location in Alabama went viral. 

Also in reference to the 2022 NYT interview, Lana says, “I’m as famous at a show as I am on the Florida-Alabama Line.” This is because Ethel Cain stated in that interview that she would never move to LA because she prefers living in the deep south, where she’s just some girl instead of a famous musician. Lana seems to somehow think that Ethel Cain cares about being lesser-known than her. 

This misconception persists despite Ethel Cain not being a real person, but rather a character from a concept album who has expressed a desire multiple times to avoid becoming too well-known, especially as the real person, Hayden Silas, behind the character. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear that Lana thinks ‘Ethel Cain’ is her real name. 

Although Lana Del Rey and Ethel Cain are similar, Ethel’s artistry keeps her in touch with reality. Lana lets fame confuse her. Just weeks before the “all about Ethel” snippet, Lana was coming under fire for disappointed reactions to her U.K. and Ireland stadium tour, where she left the stage to let a hologram perform some of her most well-loved songs. 

The Florida-Alabama Line 

Lana Del Rey’s association with the impoverished American South is far less genuine than Ethel Cain’s connection to the region. Despite relentlessly romanticizing briefly living in a trailer park while attending Fordham University, Lana Del Rey grew up in New York City and attended various Catholic schools and boarding schools. Her father was an early internet domain investor, and her mother was a teacher. 

Hayden Silas actually grew up in a Baptist community of less than 7,000 people near Tallahassee, Florida. She was homeschooled and spent much of her early life lacking exposure to the secular world. While ideas surrounding the American South are much more centered in Ethel Cain’s work, the difference in real connection vs idealized fantasy is obvious between the two. 

Who wins? 

So, who wins in the fight between Ethel Cain and Lana del Rey? Ethel Cain is the biggest winner, since Lana’s mentioning of her served as a distraction during one of her career’s biggest controversies. 

Just a week before the ‘All About Ethel’ snippet, old screenshots surfaced in which Hayden Silas admitted to using the N-word, made jokes about rape and wore a T-shirt reading, “Legalize incest.” Silas addressed this cancellation in a lengthy apology. She said she was “Truly sorry” and that the posts were “Purposely inflammatory.” Lana del Rey inadvertently shifted fans’ attention from dissecting this apology to defending Ethel from Lana stans. 

Lana loses in many ways, since this controversy is so revealing of insecurity. Lana is nearly a full decade older than Ethel Cain. While reviews of Lana’s most recent stadium tour show that she might be past her prime, Ethel is doing nothing but gaining momentum. It doesn’t matter if Lana is ready to pass the torch, because Ethel already stole it. 

However, Lana del Rey will never truly flop. She is almost never critically challenged by her fans, so this beef only goes to promote her upcoming album, which is being touted as her most poetic work yet. The actual biggest losers are the fans, who will likely never live to see a collab between the two.