Album Review

Zola Jesus – Stridulum II

• 8th Sep 2010

This Zola Jesus lady, she’s pretty darn cool. A classically trained opera singer, Nika Roza Danilova seems to be on a quest to push music to the limit, and her past experiments with industrial stuff, noise and electronica have produced music that’s so out there it borders on unlistenable.

But with her EP release, Stridulum, in the US last year she reined things back, played around with a few pop devices, and produced six minimalist tracks of atmospheric drone and deep, dark strident vocals that give you goosebumps, backed by militant drumming that knocks your innards around a bit.

Stridulum II is the European release of the same EP, with three new songs tacked onto the end – essentially to reach album length but also because, as Danilova says, the music has moved on a bit since the EP was released.

And it’s these three tracks that really make this album. The sparseness and stock-character lyrics of the earlier EP were starting to feel a little formulaic after repeat listens. While each song, the single ‘Night’ in particular, works rather well on its own, it takes quite the enthusiast to distinguish between the subtle nuances of each track when listening to them all in a row.

But with the new tracks you can really see the artist coming into her own. With the sound and structure of the previous tracks mastered, Zola J opens up a bit. She lets the songs become a bit more personal. So in the lovely ‘Sea Talk’, for example, the clever use of clichés is replaced by admissions like “I’m tired” and “I can’t give you what you need, all by myself”.

And in ‘Lightsick’ the heartbreak in the lyrics is joined by a suitably metronomic tune from an endearingly clunky piano that’ll get you every time.

The new songs don’t jar; they’re a natural progression of the old. It’s just that now, as well as making the hairs on the back of your neck prickle, they’ll also tug at your heartstrings a little.

Clever lady. If she carries on in this vein, Zola Jesus could well go from being a wee bit creepy to downright formidable.