Zola Jesus — Arkhon: Glossy and gothic pop but lacking originality

• Author: Éamon Sweeney
• Published date: 24 June 2022
• Publication title: Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland)

Arkhon is her sixth studio album for the esteemed Brooklyn based label Sacred Bones, whose roster also features Blanck Mass, David Lynch, John Carpenter, The Soft Moon, and Irish singer Hilary Woods. This lavish is impeccably polished and executed, opening with Lost, which concludes with stirring percussion reminiscent of Dead Can Dance. Big swooping power ballads such as Dead and Gone are unashamedly histrionic. Desire brings this to the brink of something you'd hear on America's Got Talent

Yet Danilova has enough inventiveness to steer clear from mainstream mediocrity. In ancient Greece, arkhon meant power or leader, and is also a Gnostic term referring to power yielded by...