Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums chart dated April 19 nearly three years after the album, her debut, was first released.
Preacher’s Daughter earned 39,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending April 10, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 37,000 units are via album sales, begetting a No. 1 debut on the all-genre Top Album Sales list.
In fact, nearly all of its sales are vinyl copies, as Preacher’s Daughter benefits from its first-ever vinyl release, 35 months after it first premiered on May 12, 2022. That count also leads to the set debuting at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
Cain becomes the first act to rule Top Alternative Albums in their first appearance on the tally since Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts premiered atop the Sept. 23, 2023, list. As Rodrigo’s was not her debut album, Cain is the first to do so with a first release since The Smile, with A Light for Attracting Attention, in July 2022.
Preacher’s Daughter also begins at No. 2 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, and on the all-genre Billboard 200, it bows at No. 10.
In addition to its album sales, Preacher’s Daughter also earned a total of 2.8 million official U.S. streams in the week ending April 10.
The chart-related activity around Cain is her first, with the majority centered around Preacher’s Daughter, though she also debuts on the Billboard Artist 100 chart at No. 4.
Cain followed Preacher’s Daughter with the nine-song ambient/drone release Perverts earlier this year, with a new album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, also expected in 2025.
