Musical theming at its highest valley

Releasing on June 24th, 2022, Zola Jesus’s newest album Arkhon introduces grunge inspiration to their already steady lineup of musical releases. With witty composing and vocals from Nika Roza Danilova, the album is truly able to excel in its ability to blend together tracks to create a seamless listening experience.

The four singles released before the album added to the anticipation brewing for the full release. The strongest of these four in both its thematics and musicality is the track “Into the Wild.” The album cover of Arkhon features Zola Jesus in a crevice of a cave, with darkness engulfing her showing the depth of the space. Many of the songs on this album feel as if they are mysterious and play with echoing in a very unique way. The use of this idea being complemented by the cover artwork adds to the cohesive theming of the tracks utilizing this theming technique. For the song “Into the Wild” in particular, the first half utilizes light synth and ethereal-sounding vocals that add to the supernatural and spooky tone that the album excels in. The second half of the song adds percussion and sounds like an almost completely different song by adding more bass and backing off on the synth. The pivot from musical ideas is surprisingly well done and seamless and shows Zola Jesus’s experience in the craft.

A song that provokes this similar thematic expression is the first song on the album: “Lost.” The first forty seconds of the song–and the album–include similar synth edits and echoes that were present in “Into the Wild” as well. “Lost” is a great first impression of what the rest of the songs have in store. In general, this album in particular is strong in track-to-track transitions, with each of the songs flowing seamlessly from one to another with ease.

Although the main strength of the album is its use of echoey edits and synth, Arkhon also features heavier rock inspirations in a few of its songs. Although these songs are not as streamlined in the theming, they are undeniably catchy and easy to listen to musically by applying common music theory sequences into the songs. An example of this is in the song “Desire” with a piano chord progression that is repeated throughout in the background while Zola Jesus’s vocal talents are given a chance to take the spotlight. The belting in this song is vocally healthy and robust, which is something a lot of other pop/rock artists struggle with in their work. A few other songs that feature Zola Jesus’s standout vocalizations also include “Fault” as well as “Efemra.”

All and all, it is clear that the use of thematic strengths of canyons and echoing features in both the album artwork and songs shows Zola Jesus’s strong understanding of both thematic and genre sequencing. With both common, yet intelligent use of progressions to shift from track to track, Zola Jesus is able to successfully release a wonderful blend of rock synth that will appeal to a variety of listeners.