"Famous Last Words" by Ethel Cain

"Famous Last Words (An Ode to Eaters) Cover

"Famous Last Words (An Ode to Eaters) by Ethel Cain and ALYX 9SM was released in July 2023, and is one of my favorite songs by Ethel Cain that is not about the character of Ethel Cain.

The lyrics are darker, and allude to imagery of cannibalism. I've seen some people talk about this song in relation to the movie Bones and All, a movie where the two main characters are in love, but also are cannibals. It's very strange inspiration material, but the song is really good. This also is not the first time Ethel Cain has dealt with the idea of cannibalism in her music.

A lot of the lyrics and imagery in the song are about eating the other in a way to feel closer to them. The last lines are "Eat of me baby, skin to the bone / Body on body, until I'm all gone / But I'm with you, inside" It's a twisted kind of love, wanting to be physically part of the other person because of how much love one has for the other.

I've never seen Bones and All, but I know ideas of the premise, and that one of the character ends up eating the other out of love(?). I think even without knowledge of this movie, this song still works as a creepy love song, really until the last lines.

The other time Hayden Anhedonia, or the face behind Ethel Cain, has played with the idea of cannibalism was in Preacher's Daughter, where Ethel Cain ends up being cannibalized by her lover, Isaiah, specifically in the song "Strangers", the last song on the album.

The reasoning for the lover to feast on the other in these two different stories are actually similar. Earlier in the album/story of Preacher's Daughter, in the song "Gibson Girl", there is a line, "Says he's in love with my body, that's why he's fucking it up". Later, in "Strangers" there is talk about being a "freezer bride" and how she(Ethel) is making him(Isaiah), "feel sick". There is more in the song about how sexy he looks when "(she's) all over your mouth" and even more about how she's "turning in (his) stomach". So the taboo of cannibalism is brought up quite a bit by Hayden in her songwriting, and the character of Ethel Cain.

The motivation in Preacher's Daughter almost directly relates to the reason for the motivation in "Famous Last Words". They are so in love with the other person that they want to physically be part of their body, or they want the other to be part of their body. It's all very gruesome and dark, but I think that level of devotion for the other echoes in both of these pieces.

I do really like these songs, and clearly I enjoy Ethel Cain a lot as seen by how much I've talked about her music. I think the topics she writes about in her music is dark already, so to me, this was an inevitable progression. We see throughout Preacher's Daughter that the character Ethel Cain has a hard time not fully committing to her lover, so what Isaiah does to her, she was fond of it.

In "Strangers" after she's been killed and cannibalized, she still begs if she "can be (his)". Her desire for attention is so strong that even in the afterlife, she still wants to be loved by this man who ended her story.

I think "Famous Last Words" is a really interesting and good song, despite the topic that the song revolves around. The production is really good and the vocals are amazing as with any song by Ethel Cain.