Happy Friday mates, the sun is shining, the vibes are high, and we’ve got a belter of a Like A Version blessed upon us this beautiful spring day. Sydney’s own CXLOE stepped into the Triple J studios this week and absolutely belted through a cover of an iconic 90s hit from The Cranberries.
After dropping the hints of ‘World War I’ and ‘fruit’ to tease what she was going to cover for the Friday sesh, CXLOE launched into a massive rendition of Zombie.
Joined by her backing band and a special guest with a big ol’ cello, CXLOE slayed a goosebump-inducing cover of the huge 90s banger, which made me stop in my tracks as I was hanging out the washing this morning.
This is some real cinematic, skin-tingling shit right here.
I feel like if she were around to hear this, Cranberries vocalist Dolores O’Riordan would be so stoked on how well CXLOE honoured the original with this powerful cover. And the fact that this song was the winner of the 1994 Hottest 100 (and was the first woman-fronted artist to nab the top spot, too.)
She went all-in on this one, turning the grungy, distorted guitars into huge, emotional, building synths and swelling strings. It’s 100% big blockbuster movie material, which is exactly what CXLOE was going for when they arranged the cover.
In a short chat before launching into the cover, CXLOE told Sally & Erica that she had tried out a whole range of music genres before she found her space in the darker side of pop (think Billie Eilish and the likes). During her trial-and-error years, CXLOE tried classical on for size, and in that found her inspiration for the Like A Version cover – namely wanting to channel her all-time favourite composer, Hans Zimmer.
And you really can hear it in the Zombie cover; it builds and swells to this incredible crescendo of music, before delicately dipping again only to start the build again.
Sally and Erica also asked CXLOE what film this cover would score, and she barely missed a beat before deciding that something like Tenet would be the ideal film for her interpretation of the track.
You know what? I back that.
