“Death, in all of its masks, has been encircling everyone I love, and with it the questions of legacy, worth, and will”.
It is with this inspiration that Zola Jesus came up with melancholic new song “Soak”. The track begins with an abrupt and commanding sound, like an antagonist cornering the hero, but quickly eases the listener into its gentle yet cold embrace.
The track is about someone being thrown into the sea against their will, yet the victim decides to transform it into someone helping them to die. As Jesus explains via NPR:
“She thinks back at her life and the futility of the decisions she made, when, in the end her life would be cut short against her will. What’s the point of trying to navigate life if you don’t even get to choose how it ends? Instead of letting her fate be determined by someone else, she takes back control and turns it around, so instead, in her mind, she is choosing to die. She lets the killer assist her in suicide, as she gets tossed into the water and slowly drowns”.
The lyrics don’t suffocate the listener in darkness and despair, but the odd line like “soak in decay, spoiling too long” and “take me to the water, let me soak in slaughter” are beautiful snippets of poetry that really drive the point home. Sung in such a voice as Jesus’, it’s even more captivating.
The song altogether feels very cinematic, best placed as the outro when the credits start rolling.
“Soak” is lifted from upcoming album Ovoki which will be available on September 8. Pre-order it here and listen to “Soak” below:
#Peace.Love.Soak
