Perverts is a drone, slowcore, dark ambient, and power electronics project that Cain conceived as a side release to her main trilogy of albums, which began with Preacher's Daughter (2022).

[1][2][3] The first release of a planned trilogy of albums,[4] it centered on an eponymous fictional character, with Southern Gothic imagery and themes including religious indoctrination, sexual violence, isolation, and family trauma.

[6] Speaking with Kiernan Shipka for Interview in June 2023, Cain expressed her excitement to "push it farther into the direction that [she has] always wanted to go" on her next full-length release, which is "10- to 20-minute songs just drenched in reverb, so slow, and super repetitive.

[10][11][12] It was initially developed as a concept project studying deviants, but only two of the first written songs—"Punish" and "Amber Waves"—were included in the final track listing.

[16] Sanders compared "The Consequence of Audience" with Cain's statement about an "irony epidemic", in which she criticized fans' memes inspired by songs from her debut album.

's Ian Gormely compared it to a late 2000s Mount Eerie album,[23] while Sanders viewed similarities to the slowcore sound of the bands Codeine and Duster.

[14] Anthony Scanga of the Iowa Public Radio compared Perverts with the ambient works of the musician Aphex Twin and the slowcore music of the band Low.

[13][26] On her Tumblr account, Cain explained that it is about a pedophile and child sexual abuser who was shot by his victim's father and "harms himself repeatedly to simulate the bullet wound" on his body.

[13] More focused on the lyrics than the rest of the project,[24] it includes a reference to Gary Plauché, an American man who killed his son's rapist, Jeffrey Doucet.

[14] The minimalist[20] drone-leaning[29] "Housofpsychoticwomn" is named after the Kier-La Janisse book titled House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films.

[13] On the lyrics, Cain references the writer Harlan Ellison and explores her own philosophical concept titled "The 12 Pillars of Simulacrum", inspired by Jean Baudrillard.

[28] Named after the architect Étienne-Louis Boullée,[12] the former is made by acoustic guitar and piano,[14] and ends with a speech of a suicidal man who "doesn't want to die anymore" after a failed attempt.

[36] In October of the same year, Cain teased music on social media by sharing grainy and black-and-white photos captioned with words including "Apathy", "Disruption", and "Assimilation".

[38] The lead single from the project, titled "Punish", was released on November 1, 2024, alongside a music video directed by Cain and Silken Weinberg.

[45] On January 10, Cain started a series of three weekly episodes premiering on NTS Radio, in which she fully played Perverts and provided commentary about the project.

[33] The Line of Best Fit's Matthew Kim called it a different experience of music, and said that it would "open up" if one is "ready to plunge into the depths and emerge semi-alive".

[28] Sputnikmusic's reviewer stated that the project and song lengths "harmed [its] replay value", and described "Punish", "Amber Waves", and "Vacillator" as the most traditional tracks.

Hé said that the project differs from the style of Cain's debut album,[33] Tipple described it as a "vast sidestep",[20] and Gormely similarly interpreted it as its opposite.

[22] Sasha Geffen of Pitchfork lauded Cain's multitracked voice, and wrote that "it scrapes off the lacquer that clung to it on earlier releases".