The propensity to attribute the label “goth” to Zola Jesus is understandable. Her new album, “Conatus,” features a song called “Hikikomori”, a Japanese term that refers to reclusive individuals who willingly withdraw from society. The most powerful asset in her arsenal, Nika “Zola Jesus” Danilova’s voice is also one of the most intense vocal instruments in gothically-labeled music since Ian Curtis’. The video for the first single off “Conatus,” for the song “Vessel”, is fairly reminiscent of Madonna’s “Frozen” video, populated as it is with desolate landscapes, dark flowing robes and sombre lip-synching.

Yet Zola Jesus is way too talented and versatile an artist to be pigeonholed. The title of the new album, “Conatus,” means the innate inclination of a being to exist and evolve. Though the album is not a huge step in a new direction, it does a great job of simultaneously broadening and perfecting Zola Jesus’ existing sound. The immense industrial beats, the atmospheric keyboards and the arresting vocals from her two previous efforts are all there on “Conatus.” Many of the best songs on the album do not stray too far from the tried and tested template of mid-tempo vignettes. Opening track “Swords,” only a minute and three seconds long, sounds like a leftover from Trent Reznor’s soundtrack to “The Social Network,” all crackles and clanging beats. The following track, “Avalanche”, adds skittish beats and handclaps while Danilova’s vocals provide a stable, if tortured, center. The first single, “Vessel”, rounds out the trio of classic Zola Jesus with a brash, propulsive beat and messianic reverberating vocals.

“Conatus” is not all doom and gloom, though. Danilova has the ability to create tracks that are at once grim and uplifting. She has showcased this ability on her previous albums, such as the soaring “Night” from her second album, “Stridulum II.” Similarly, “In Your Nature” on  “Conatus” sports Terminator-worthy beats approaching funkiness and a glorious sing-along chorus while Danilova apparently sings of some Darwinian defeatism. “Seekir” begins with Danilova switching it up and chanting before a Goldfrapp-like beat and synths on loan from The Knife take the song in an unexpectedly pop, upbeat direction.

As befits the record of an artist who has stated that she has wanted to play Madison Square Garden ever since she wrote her first song, the production on  “Conatus” is slicker, more detailed and expansive than her previous efforts. On “Shivers”, as well as other tracks, Danilova reveals herself to be a deft creator of layered beats. It is when she keeps it too simple, though, that her songs fail. “Lick the Palm of the Burning Handshake” has the insistent tanning-a-metallic-hide beat but lacks the complexity to make it anything but filler bombast. “Ixode” has unintelligible vocals, a 4/4 big drum and nothing to show for it. An equal waste of time is “Skin”, a boring bare bones piano ballad that sounds like the kind of over-earnest and overindulgent songs The Fray and their ilk produce.

At the heart of  “Conatus” is Danilova’s voice. Considering her range, it should come as no surprise that she received opera training as a young girl. At turns vigorous and vulnerable, clear and cracked, Danilova masters it to perfection. Certainly, female belters seem to have no trouble getting their voices heard, to which the successes of the likes of Adele and Florence + The Machine testify. Vocally, Danilova is indeed akin to Florence Welsh, albeit more leftfield and less soul-inspired. Still,  “Conatus” is by no means a commercial affair; even if most of the songs are pop songs at heart, the production seems far too experimental and intricate to garner chart-toppers. No matter how much she wants that Madison Square Garden gig, here’s hoping she does not take the concept of  “Conatus” too far since the Zola Jesus of this record is pretty awesome.