''Taiga'' is the fourth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American singer-songwriter

Zola Jesus Nika Roza Danilova (born Nicole Rose Hummel; April 11, 1989), known professionally by her stage name Zola Jesus, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her music has been noted for combining elements of electronic, industrial, ...

. It was released on October 6, 2014 in the UK and EU and on October 7, 2014 in the US through

Mute Muteness is a speech disorder in which a person lacks the ability to speak. Mute or the Mute may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Mute'' (2005 film), a short film by Melissa Joan Hart * ''Mute'' (2018 film), a scien ...

. The album was produced by Nika Roza Danilova and co-produced by Dean Hurley. It marks the first Zola Jesus record to be released through Mute Records. The album title ''Taiga'' is the Russian word for

boreal forests Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces ...

. A music video was released for the album's first single "Dangerous Days". The music video was directed by Timothy Saccenti and filmed in

Hoh Rainforest Hoh Rainforest is one of the largest temperate rainforests in the U.S., located on the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington state. It includes of low elevation forest along the Hoh River. The Hoh River valley was formed thousands of years ag ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Critical reception

Upon its release, ''Taiga'' received generally positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. The review aggregator website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

assigns a "Metascore" to each album, which is based on the ratings and reviews of selected mainstream independent publications, and the release has a score of a 66 based on 21 selected critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.

* Nika Roza Danilova – vocals, synthesizer, programming, production, arrangement Additional musicians * Joe Exley – horn arrangement, tuba * Kyra Sims – French horn * Gabe Martin – flugelhorn, trumpet * Garth Flowers – trumpet * Andris Mattson – trumpet * Erik Hughes – trombone * Matt Melore – trombone * James Rogers – trombone * Drake Smith – trombone * Kim Free – violin * Gillian Rivers – violin * Yuiko Kamakari – viola * Justin Kantor – cello Technical personnel * Dean Hurley – production, engineering, mixing * Chris Coady – additional production * Brian Rosemeyer – additional engineering * David Tolomei – additional engineering * Blake Mares – mixing assistance * Brian Lucey – mastering * Caleb Braaten – art direction, design * David Correll – art direction, design * Julia Comita – cover, insert photography * Jeff Elstone – back cover photography

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2014 albums Zola Jesus albums Mute Records albums Albums recorded at Kingsize Soundlabs