Overview Music critics have categorized
Perverts as a
drone,
Exclaim! Ian Gormely compared it to a late 2000s
Mount Eerie album, There are two statements throughout the song, "Heaven has forsaken the masturbator" and "it's happening to everybody". Sanders drew similarities between the piano progressions of "Punish" and "Horizon", an
Aldous Harding song from the album
Party (2017). Clare Martin of
Paste drew comparisons to the horror film
The Grudge (2004), while Steven Hyden of
Uproxx compared it to the slower tracks on the 1977 album
Low by the musician
David Bowie, and the 2005 album
Feels by the band
Animal Collective. It contains repeated statements of "I love you" and "I do" over a static sound, told by a low-pitched voice to a lost love. On the over 7-minute-long "Vacillator", Cain sings
melancholic lyrics portraying an abuser in a relationship: "I like that sound you make / when you're clawing at the edge / and without escape". A slowcore and
country ballad with a minimalist production, it is the only song on
Perverts that contains drums.
Slant Magazine Eric Mason believed that Cain "channels" the singer-songwriter
Nicole Dollanganger on the track. The title of the fifth song from
Perverts, "Onanist", refers to
masturbation. Over lo-fi piano and electric bass, Cain explores imagery inspired by
Inferno, a poem by the writer
Dante Alighieri. The longest track on the album, "Pulldrone", is monotone
spoken word and drone played on a
hurdy-gurdy with references to "
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream". Martin compared its sound to ''Preacher's Daughter
"Ptolemaea" and to the works of the progressive folk group Lankum. In the lyrics, Cain references the writer Harlan Ellison and explores her own philosophical concept titled "The 12 Pillars of Simulacrum", inspired by Jean Baudrillard. "Etienne" and "Thatorchia" are instrumentals containing guitars and mechanical noise. Named after the architect Étienne-Louis Boullée, the former is made by acoustic guitar and piano, and ends with a speech about a suicidal man who attempts to induce a heart attack by excessively running to commit suicide. "Thatorchia" is a shoegaze song with a post-rock outro, which also incorporates religious imagery. NME'' Kristen S. Hé believed that the guitar used on the track is similar to the ambient and shoegaze band
Lovesliescrushing. "Thatorchia" is also the only song on the album that's completely an instrumental and does not have any lyrics. The project closes with the slowcore "Amber Waves", which is one of the more lyric-focused tracks. Its title references the poem "
America the Beautiful", as well as the film
The Reflecting Skin (1990). Over guitar and noise, the song depicts a toxic relationship; Cain reveals, "the devil I know is the devil I want". According to Gormely, "Amber Waves" is reminiscent to the works of the band
American Football. The song and project end with the singer saying, "I can't feel anything". == Release and promotion ==