Zola Jesus - Taiga (2014) [HDtracks]

Nika is the 25-year-old sole singer and songwriter behind Zola Jesus. Her new album Taiga is at once challenging and accessible, and is undeniably branded with what Nika terms a “piercing ambition.” Such encompassing purpose, she explains, would be impossible without a newfound sense of personal and artistic self. The album is a declaration of that purpose; one laced with jarring clarity in both its content and production. Taiga, the Russian name for a boreal forest pays homage to Nika’s Russian roots and her time spent growing up in rural Wisconsin on a 100-acre farm.
For Nika, Taiga is a leap that reflects a fearlessness to be earnest and open, an approach that is immediately evidenced in the album's first single, “Dangerous Days,” an undeniably hook ridden four-on-the-floor smash. Nika wrote the album on Vashon Island, a densely-wooded enclave in Puget Sound with no bridges connecting it to the mainland. Nika was also influenced by her time in Iceland, Vermont, and British Columbia and the album conjures these places while creating a unique sonic space of its own that each listener can travel to, explore, hide in, and celebrate.
After leaving Vashon, Nika mixed the album in Los Angeles with engineer and co-producer Dean Hurley who helped bring her vision into sharp focus.