It’s October 28th , so I thought I’d post a special Halloween-themed Guilty Pleasure – The Cranberries’ 1994 hit – Zombie. Except, it doesn’t really have anything to do with zombies in the Halloween sense – it’s a song protesting violence in Northern Ireland at the time. And it’s not really a Guilty Pleasure in the true sense of the word, because it’s an amazing song that’s pretty much universally well-liked. Oh well, maybe I’ll come up with a better one for next year…
I remember when this first came out. The band was getting to be pretty well-known from their hits “Dreams” and “Linger”. Those two songs were love songs that featured the sweet, angelic voice of Dolores O’Riordan over lush, pop arrangements. In other words – they were chick songs. The first few seconds of Zombie seemed to indicate it was going that same direction, too. Then the heavy guitars and drums come thundering in. Mind blown. Instantly. And it continued to surprise me with the use of the loud-soft-loud singing style pioneered by the Pixies and made famous by Nirvana. Sure, the style was really popular with grunge bands at the time. But the Cranberries doing it?
Alas, it didn’t last. They went back to the soccer mom sound with “Ode to My Family” and, a few years later, “Just my Imagination”. After those they pretty much fell off the radar. Well, at least Dolores still looks good…
Here’s the vid:
Hey! I like that one too… maybe we share music tastes (although tbh most of mine are guilty pleasures)
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