Zola Jesus - The Fall - from the 2022 album Arkhon on Sacred Bones.

Zola Jesus returns with her sixth full-length later this month titled Arkhon. The artist, whose real name is Nika Roza Danilova, explains that the title translates to "power" or "ruler" in ancient Greek.

"Arkons are a Gnostic idea of power wielded through a flawed god," Danilova elaborated via a press release. "They taint and tarnish humanity, keeping them corrupted instead of letting them find their harmonious selves. I do feel like we are living in an arkhonic time; these negative influences are weighing extremely heavy on all of us. We're in a time of arkhons. There's power in naming that." 

Today's Song of the Day taps into that power. "I wrote ‘The Fall’ for myself," she said. "It was an exercise in using music as a tool for the sake of my own inner catharsis. I had a lot of turmoil and complicated emotions that I couldn’t process in any other way. I suppose some feelings require you to write a pop song in order to fully understand them. For that reason, this song is very precious to me."

Read the full post on KEXP.org