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Welcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.
Continuing our annual series of Halloween specific cover songs to celebrate the month of October, we have another trick in our regular programing! Last week I moved what would be our Third Sunday Throwback to the twentieth century into the Second Sunday Slowly slot reserved for down tempo tracks. Well it's an official swap as we present a dark alt/chillwave cover of a song that has been incorporated into Halloween playlists, presumably more for its name than the scary nature of its origins.:
Missio – Zombie (The Cranberries)
The Cranberries released Zombie just a couple of weeks before the October 1994 debut of their second album, No Need To Argue. It was the first single from the album but their label at the time, Island Records, didn't want to put it out at all. They objected to its highly political message and, as it's reported, offered the band a million dollars to work on some other song. The band's manager was quoted saying of the late singer/songwriter Dolores O'Riordan, “Her belief was that she was an international artist and she wanted to break the rest of the world, and Zombie was part of that evolution. She felt the need to expand beyond ‘I love you, you love me’ and write about what was happening in Ireland at the time.”
What was happening in Ireland? In early 1993, as part of a long fight for Northern Irish independence from British rule, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed two locations in Warrington, Cheshire, England. The second of the bombings injured over 50 people and killed two children. Addressing that tragedy with little subtlety in her lyrics, O'Riordan said in one interview, "I knew that would be the angle of the song, because it was controversial."
The single was a multi-platinum success despite not actually being released in the U.S. at all, where instead its widespread radio and music television airtime seemed to elevate album sales. O'Riordan said she "was kind of taken aback with the success of the song. I didn't know it was going to be that successful."
There are over fifty covers of the track, including one done by an industrial project called Give Me Gyp who do not seem to have recorded anything else under that name.
Missio, a synthpop/futurebass duo, seem to have first released their cover of Zombie on the internet in January 2015 as a "New Year's gift" for fans. Vocalist Matthew Brue said that when choosing a cover they "look for darker sounding tracks that speak to us on another level than just 'that beat/riff is cool.'" He said that Zombie "spoke to us in ways that resonated with us as artists. We came to the decision early on that we will not release something that we expect people to relate with if we cannot relate with it first. We’re not interested in covering a song because it’s popular and will “get the plays up.” We want to be releasing material that gives people that emotional impact that we’re all looking for in our lives."
The track was seemingly removed from various streaming services, but they opened it to the public again after the death of O'Riordan in January 2018.
They have also remarked that they would be releasing the cover along with others as part of an upcoming record.
Their take on Zombie starts with a kind of atmospheric chant of the weapons of war mentioned in the lyrics before its opening melancholy and mysterious melodies and lead verses, dropping its dark downtempo rhythms after the first chorus. It's reminiscent in some ways of the styling of The Cranberries' work previous to this track, deconstructing the rock sound and texturing it with a cinematic soundscape of spookiness.
Obviously The Cranberries never intended the song for Halloween consumption and the "Zombie" in question isn't one of the brain-biting variety, but that doesn't mean it's not a welcome goth-friendly-pop treat for the season!:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Wrapping up Octoberween with the declaration of the edict by which we creatures of darkness live!
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.
I have two Halloweek gigs before the next blog and two more the week after! For details about that and other upcoming gigs, please check my schedule!
(And if, after 4 years and 233 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, consider leaving me a tip in the form of the gift of music and get me something from my wishlist on Bandcamp if you like. It'll go to good use! Thanks!)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Oct 13 - 29 Died – The Addams Family (Vic Mizzy)
Oct 06 - Creature Feature – Grim Grinning Ghosts (The Mellomen)
Sep 29 - Synthetic Division – Somebody (Depeche Mode)
Sep 22 - Sawtooth – Mindfields (The Prodigy)
Sep 15 - Massive Attack – Man Next Door (The Paragons)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.
Continuing our annual series of Halloween specific cover songs to celebrate the month of October, we have another trick in our regular programing! Last week I moved what would be our Third Sunday Throwback to the twentieth century into the Second Sunday Slowly slot reserved for down tempo tracks. Well it's an official swap as we present a dark alt/chillwave cover of a song that has been incorporated into Halloween playlists, presumably more for its name than the scary nature of its origins.:
Missio – Zombie (The Cranberries)
The Cranberries released Zombie just a couple of weeks before the October 1994 debut of their second album, No Need To Argue. It was the first single from the album but their label at the time, Island Records, didn't want to put it out at all. They objected to its highly political message and, as it's reported, offered the band a million dollars to work on some other song. The band's manager was quoted saying of the late singer/songwriter Dolores O'Riordan, “Her belief was that she was an international artist and she wanted to break the rest of the world, and Zombie was part of that evolution. She felt the need to expand beyond ‘I love you, you love me’ and write about what was happening in Ireland at the time.”
What was happening in Ireland? In early 1993, as part of a long fight for Northern Irish independence from British rule, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed two locations in Warrington, Cheshire, England. The second of the bombings injured over 50 people and killed two children. Addressing that tragedy with little subtlety in her lyrics, O'Riordan said in one interview, "I knew that would be the angle of the song, because it was controversial."
The single was a multi-platinum success despite not actually being released in the U.S. at all, where instead its widespread radio and music television airtime seemed to elevate album sales. O'Riordan said she "was kind of taken aback with the success of the song. I didn't know it was going to be that successful."
There are over fifty covers of the track, including one done by an industrial project called Give Me Gyp who do not seem to have recorded anything else under that name.
Missio, a synthpop/futurebass duo, seem to have first released their cover of Zombie on the internet in January 2015 as a "New Year's gift" for fans. Vocalist Matthew Brue said that when choosing a cover they "look for darker sounding tracks that speak to us on another level than just 'that beat/riff is cool.'" He said that Zombie "spoke to us in ways that resonated with us as artists. We came to the decision early on that we will not release something that we expect people to relate with if we cannot relate with it first. We’re not interested in covering a song because it’s popular and will “get the plays up.” We want to be releasing material that gives people that emotional impact that we’re all looking for in our lives."
The track was seemingly removed from various streaming services, but they opened it to the public again after the death of O'Riordan in January 2018.
They have also remarked that they would be releasing the cover along with others as part of an upcoming record.
Their take on Zombie starts with a kind of atmospheric chant of the weapons of war mentioned in the lyrics before its opening melancholy and mysterious melodies and lead verses, dropping its dark downtempo rhythms after the first chorus. It's reminiscent in some ways of the styling of The Cranberries' work previous to this track, deconstructing the rock sound and texturing it with a cinematic soundscape of spookiness.
Obviously The Cranberries never intended the song for Halloween consumption and the "Zombie" in question isn't one of the brain-biting variety, but that doesn't mean it's not a welcome goth-friendly-pop treat for the season!:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Wrapping up Octoberween with the declaration of the edict by which we creatures of darkness live!
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.
I have two Halloweek gigs before the next blog and two more the week after! For details about that and other upcoming gigs, please check my schedule!
(And if, after 4 years and 233 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, consider leaving me a tip in the form of the gift of music and get me something from my wishlist on Bandcamp if you like. It'll go to good use! Thanks!)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Oct 13 - 29 Died – The Addams Family (Vic Mizzy)
Oct 06 - Creature Feature – Grim Grinning Ghosts (The Mellomen)
Sep 29 - Synthetic Division – Somebody (Depeche Mode)
Sep 22 - Sawtooth – Mindfields (The Prodigy)
Sep 15 - Massive Attack – Man Next Door (The Paragons)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .