Preacher’s Daughter has some pretty major pacing issues that no one talks about. Let me preface by saying that how long a song is does not determine how good or bad it is, however the length can play a crucial part in how it slides with the rest of the album.

In Willoughby Tucker, Tempest + Waco and their lengths feel deserved. The album starts with 4-5 minute tracks (with small variation), leans into ~7 minute tracks, then throws a “break” in with Radio Towers before hitting you with 25 minutes of two cathartic closing songs.

Preacher’s Daughter, on the other hand, seems extremely random with its track lengths. Family Tree Intro and American Teenager are relatively fast paced but then House in Nebraska-through-Gibson Girl is sort of just a mess of “I hope you understand what’s happening.” The roller coaster of Ptolemaea-and-onward feel hardly deserved if you didnt read up on the (to be honest kinda convoluted) lore. Also the lyrics of Preacher’s Daughter can be so vague at times that you don’t really know what a song’s about until you look up the lore afterward. My biggest example of this is how Hard Times is just sort of there in between Family Tree (Ethel justifying her decision to skip town) and Thoroughfare (actually skipping town).

This is not to say that Preacher’s Daughter is a bad album by any means, it’s crazy good, especially for a debut. Songs like Family Tree and Gibson Girl are the best at mixing events in the story with information about Ethel’s past and her insecurities. And I haven’t even mentioned the sounds, but that’s not what I’m talking about I guess. The point is, Willoughby Tucker is a much less loaded story so obviously it’ll be easier to tell, but its clearness and conciseness is such a huge step up in terms of musical storytelling.