Ethel Cain had a great year with the release of her latest album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You. Before ringing in 2026, she decided to give fans one more gift this year: a handful of demos from the making of the project, which she shared on Soundcloud yesterday (December 29).
Announcing the tracks on Instagram, Cain wrote, “uploaded some demos from willoughby tucker onto my soundcloud. thank u all for the love on perverts and my little blood stained blonde this year. until whatever’s next…. goodnight.”
The individual song uploads on Soundcloud come with brief notes. Cain writes of “Shrug (Janie Demo),” “shrug (the original title for janie) was originally going to be from willoughby’s perspective as well. dust bowl was going to transition directly into it. i wound up reworking it a bit to be about janie.” She also wrote for “A Knock At The Door (Demo I),” “a lot of the lyrics from these demos got shuffled around until they found their homes. i wrote all three versions of this song in the same day and picked my favorite version two years later while finishing the record. it wound up being the simplest version in the end, but i think these two versions elaborate a little more on the story. that might be why i avoided them, thinking they were too on the nose idk. i like all three versions a lot.”
Listen to the songs above and check out Cain’s upcoming tour dates below.