Classic Albums: Conatus by Zola Jesus

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Written by William

Right here I go again, filling up my blog with my fave albums list again! So I stopped doing these posts at the start of this year like in February but bring them back now in July. Now I was trying to figure out a fair way to add more but I can’t! So this is what I’m now going to do from now on, OK? Because I do like going backwards it seems so and my half ass try to run the alphabet backwards with my the rest of my fave albums. I’ve most likely fucked it up already because I’ve got this as her first name were it should be her last.

This is my 100th one on this CA list, you know? That might sound crazy to some for one person to have over 100 fave albums but I do, don’t you? This idea is simply just to name all the albums that are very important to me, it’s not really a review of every album too! I think at this point I will keep to some basic facts about the artist and the album in each post with maybe even no real reason why this is one I love the best and maybe even talk a load of totally rubbish about. I’m not Pitchfork or some other high and mighty website, I’m just a blogger and this is down to my own opinion and these are just the albums I love the best and that’s about it! I’ll included the steaming links so anyone can press play here on it and off course, I’ll update my list at the end of of the post too! Sorry, if it’s a bit of a shit post/s but it is what it is, not sorry!

Zola Jesus which is not her real name, for a longtime I would even call her Zoe before getting her name right. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, USA and her birth name is Nicole Hummel but also she goes by the name Nika Roza Danilova clamming her Russia name so her parents are American too but her family has Russian heritage.

At now age 29 she has five albums plus a few EPs to her name. So Conatus was the third studio album released back only in 2011. The title Conatus translated into English is “to endeavor” from old Latin and was used in or by early philosophies of psychology and metaphysics.

She has just tour Australia, well over east that is and played down at Tassie’s epic Winter festival Dark Mofo which I’ve always wanted to check out but didn’t get to it yet again this year. Should have try a bit hard to get to it really! So sorry to say, I’ve never seen her live yet!

Film maker David Lynch did remix one of the songs at the time which I’ve just got to thrown in here!

I haven’t really wrote much about it but I do love every part and track, not one bad song on it and I couldn’t pick a fave track even because it’s prefect from beginning to the end. Zola has named artists like Swans, Ian Curtis, Lydia Lunch, Diamanda Galás and Throbbing Gristle that inspired her but she made something her own. I guess, I should say the genres she has be labeled are like synth art pop and dark wave or styles combined everything from electronic, classical, industrial and even goth but just have a listen to it yourself right now! If you don’t fall in love? I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you? But might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I guess?

Conatus track listing:

1. “Swords” 1:03
2. “Avalanche” 3:20
3. “Vessel” 4:42
4. “Hikikomori” 3:47
5. “Ixode” 4:14
6. “Seekir” 3:44
7. “In Your Nature” 3:27
8. “Lick the Palm of the Burning Handshake” 4:27
9. “Shivers” 2:54
10. “Skin” 4:21
11. “Collapse” 4:07
Australian bonus track:
12. “Days Grow Older” 3:33

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So this list below are my 99 faves, so far because I’m still counting them up, now Conatus by Zola Jesus is the 100th album post today!

So who’s going to listen to all these and tell me what the hell they think of each and every one of them?

Cheers 🙂

4 Comments

  1. Dark Mofo program sounded so good, Zola would have been great to see there. You’ll have to try to get there next year maybe! Tassie is the best! And Mona is sooo fun! I had a listen, my fave is ‘Vessel’, have heard that the most too! ps- top CA list, a few of my faves on there and also some to add to my listening list of course! Great post yet again, cheers for sharing. =)

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    1. Oh yeah, Dark Mofo looks pretty great every year so maybe next year!
      I’ll love to know what you do think of each and every one on that CA list but I guess, I have notices you hitting the likes thingy on some of the older ones lately which might be the best thing to do, if that’s what you wanna do!
      🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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  2. Yes, next year you should, even the January Mofo! Just a hop-step-jump for me, a short flight across the Bass Strait, I should take my own advice and do it too! I’d love to tell you what I think about each of your CA list but it will take a long time, I do like listening to the older ones because like I always say to you I’m better at 90s, 2000s stuff and there’s so much great older stuff that I feel I’ve missed out on/know only superficially and not through more sustained listenings. But you already know how I feel about Mark’s Christmas Carols! That’s the first one for ya! =)

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