Saying the last six months have been a whirlwind for our brightest young artist would certainly be a bit of an understatement. In addition to turning 21 successfully, by the time you read this, she will have also graduated college with a double major, and left her home of Wisconsin for the significantly less flat pavement of Los Angeles. But beyond the collegiate and personal milestones, Zola Jesus has attained some crucial career milestones since her last EP as well. She will be heading out on her first proper tours this fall, (three of them back-to-back, actually) supporting Fever Ray and Xiu Xiu abroad and The xx stateside. Don't worry there will be plenty of headline shows sprinkled throughout as well, and yes, most of the shows will be with the full band. She has also worked with a producer (Chris Coady) for the first time, the fruits of which labor appear here on the first track, "Poor Animal." Gone are the morose, gothic lo-vibes and in their place is an airy almost dance track that still sounds as true to form as other endeavor Danilova has ever undertaken. An old hit and recent show-stopper live track, "Seatalk" has been re-recorded as well and this new well mic'd version is breathtakingly good. There will be a video coming for that soon too. Closer, "Lightsick" is a straight piano ballad. Not synth, real piano. And for her darker fans, "Tower" still has that Mad Maxian apocalypse creep we know and love. To top it all off, we've gone ahead and completely 180'd the harsh chocolate artwork of Stridulum to present you with a softer, gentler, blonder ZJ as photographed by her mother in the woods near their home.