Zilla With Her Eyes Shut - S/T (Accidental Records)

A Parisian living in London, Zilla With Her Eyes Shut, or Zilla for short, is a bold new avant pop artist whose new self-titled album constantly plays with the definition and boundaries of what is and isn’t pop. A concept record, it contains a profound and moving push and pull between fiction and reality as Zilla relates the story of a little girl and her imaginary friend. As the songs dive deeper and deeper into the darkness of adolescence, Zilla finds a way to skillfully communicate her own childhood trauma without the album ever really feeling like a confessional.

Influenced by the likes of Bjork and FKA Twigs, Zilla is truly more inspired by their spirit, because it is evident here that her style here is completely of her own invention. Anything from the pages of a book to a lightbulb is up for being sampled, and whether a song is playful like “The Sleepwalker” or darker like “Whisper, Whisper,” there is the sense that Zilla is forcefully bending sounds and noises, especially those not typically found within pop, to suit her purposes. Zilla With Her Eyes Shut is a brilliantly bold and provocative record that proves something can have commercial appeal without once sacrificing experimentation or artistic integrity.