Zola Jesus - Taiga

The first track on Zola Jesus’ latest album starts with a chorus of mystical wailing women, goes into heavy and complex drum session, and finishes with a big brass finale, booming out. I am well excited. This album is called Taiga, which is the Russian name for the boreal forest, so I’m hoping for haunting, gothic sounds a-plenty, as is Zola’s way. BUT. Her claims that she has a newfound artistic sense of self have not been realised on this album. The whole thing is more commercial; she’s lost a touch of her mystical, ‘ancient woman’ vibe somewhere along the way, and this album feels less earthy as a result. Zola Jesus has been described in the past as a sort-of-Kate-Bush, but there’s none of the variety of pace or mood that Bush provides. It seems she is relying too heavily on the admittedly awesome power of her voice, and as a result, the music seems to just flow through the whole album with no discernable changes between songs. I can’t even tell you which tracks are better than others as it’s all a bit of a mass of STUFF. I think she’s trying to hit the big time; she may do it with this record, which does sound at times like Madonna on a bad day due to her massive voice, but it won’t do much for the lonely goths of this world.