"Waco, Texas" by Ethel Cain

"Waco, Texas" Visualizer

This is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard.

This song is the final track on Willoughby Tucker I'll Always Love You by Ethel Cain, and my personal favorite. It's 15 minutes long.

The lyrics are amazing as well. I'm very normal about Ethel Cain and her music so this take is not biased in any way whatsoever. :)

The song is about the character Ethel, longing for Willoughby after a tornado hits their hometown and she leaves him instead of staying with him. It's their ultimate breakup song because it's the end of their story.

One could argue that "A House in Nebraska" from Preacher's Daughter is their breakup song, but to me, that's more of Ethel reminiscing on her first love and how she can't go back to him. This song does reference "A House in Nebraska" with the lines "But I still believe in Nebraska dreamin'". So it does acknowledge that song and that place, but I feel like this song in particular is the actual breakup of the two characters.

The forth verse and the chorus that follows it are my absolute favorite parts of the song. They're both soul-crushing. I would put lyrics in that I like the most, but there is not a lyric I dislike in these two parts.

I think the last full line really sticks out to me for how gut-wrenching it is though: "But it'll never be good enough like I want to believe it is". It doesn't really feel like a proper ending to the song, and that makes it hurt even more. After this it goes into three minutes of pure music--vocals, instruments, everything, and it just hurts. I really can't describe how much I love this song and the meaning around it, so I would just suggest to give it a listen.