OKOVI

This is a great album. Zola Jesus has a big voice is intense and has something to say just love it

Superb. Her best album.

Loved this album

The title of the 6th album from Madison, Wisconsin’s Zola Jesus (aka Nika Resa Danilova) is the Bosnian word for “chains”. There are no such restrictions here, as she creates and enables ambient choral haunts that float in and out of consciousness, darkly celestial doom-tribal rock with an industrial kick, rhythmic-triggered washes of synthesizer sound riding on deep drum beats, and strains of neo-classical orchestration that sweep the sound stage with soaring strings. All of this is carefully wrapped around her elegantly rich, sibylline voice. Periodically recalls artists such as Danielle Dax, Chelsea Wolfe, EMA, Diamanda Galas, Foetus. “Okovi” is an audio journey to another land, one where the air shimmers with soundwaves of seductively disturbing, surreal songs. It’s an oddly enchanting world.

In some ways, Zola Jesus is the Daenerys Targaryen of pop music. Despite her talent, she's been exiled to a musical land far away from the mainstream, but has nevertheless created her own personal empire. Even though few people believed in her at first, she persevered, and now almost anybody who hears her voice will become convinced. Also, she literally has dragons. That's right, literal freaking dragons that breathe scorching, purifying fire. Okay, that last part probably isn't true, but it should be. Her last album, Taiga, was an attempt to translate her darkwave vision to a mainstream pop audience (a.k.a. Westeros), but she was repelled in her attempt. The pop audience wants a happy party, and Danilova wants her fun to be meaningful. So with Okovi, she's back to her adopted homeland (Mereen?), and she wants to break our shackles ("okovi" translates to "shackles" in some Slavic languages--maybe even Dothraki, for all I know). Many of the songs address depression and even suicide, but she seeks an emotional connection as a step in recovery. On "Siphon" she identifies with someone considering suicide, asking him to hold on--"We want to clean the blood of a living man..." Meanwhile, "Veka" could be about how we live on in the memories of others--"Who will find you/when all you are...is dust?" Musically, it's the rare goth song that people could dance to, but you could just as easily feel or think to it as well. "Soak" is a gospel song that atheists can love, and "Exumed" is just plain amazing; a post-industrial aria of survival. There are some moments here where she gets a little too musically conservative for my taste. If I wanted musicians and singers to play it safe, I'd watch one of those ridiculous TV singing competitions. At her best, Danilova is capable of burning any American Idol to the ground. Which reminds me of those darn dragons. If her songs are her children, and her kids wield such power, then Zola Jesus is truly the Mother of Dragons--and no one could just make that stuff up.

The Album itself is fine, Zola Jesus' haunting music is remarkable. The problem is with Amazon's AutoRip offer, which promises "Includes FREE MP3 version of this album. Provided by Amazon Digital Services LLC. Terms and Conditions. Does not apply to gift orders. Complete your purchase to save the MP3 version to your music library." Unfortunately the AutoRip tracks are NOT the tracks on the album, but rather some Bonus Tracks. All nice and good, but not what I paid for. Contacted customer support via their chat, and several well intentioned but powerless representatives attempted to help over the space of about 24 hours. In the end I was informed that the bonus tracks (which are not on the CD) were the only tracks on the AutoRip offer. I told support this was not what their listing indicated, and that this was known as bait-and-switch and was illegal. They offered a return on the CD, but I told them I wanted to keep the physical media. I asked for a credit to my Amazon account for the amount of the MP3 album on Amazon Music so I could simply purchase the MP3 version, but they refused. 5 stars for the album, 1 star for Amazon's horrible unreasonable powerless difficult to contact customer support.

Exclent record and arrived pretty quick

Excellent album, but my copy sadly is a bad off center pressing. Side B is really off center and the last track is pretty much unplayable. I will return this copy and hope I get a better pressing.

Bè...certo deve piacere ma Okovi è spettacolare

Das brandneue Album von Nika Roza Danilova, besser bekannt unter ihrem Künstlernamen Zola Jesus, ist eine sehr gelunge Verbindung vom Pop-Charakter des Vorgängeralbums "Taiga" und dem mysteriösen, dunklen Feeling der früheren Werke. Auf "Okovi" finden sich nach der choralen Einleitung 'Doma' sowohl elektronisch geprägte Stücke wie 'Remains' und 'Veka' als auch akustischere Tracks wie 'Exhumed' und 'Wiseblood'. Mit 'Witness' ist auch eine klassische Ballade vertreten, bei der ihre glasklare Stimme nur von Streichern begleitet wird. Der rote Faden, der die verschiedenen Songs zusammenhält, ist die wunderschön düstere Atmosphäre. Klare Kaufempfehlung! Anspieltipps: Exhumed, Witness, Remains

Zola Jesus,ist Zola Jesus.Düster und doch Poppig.Aber kein Kommerz.Ich Liebe die Scheibe. Kufen,Punkt.