"Zombie" is a song by English singer-songwriter

Jamie T Jamie Alexander Treays (born 8 January 1986), better known by his stage name Jamie T, is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, guitarist and record producer from Wimbledon, South London. Jamie T released his debut album, '' Panic Prevention'' ...

. It was released as the second single from his third studio album '' Carry On the Grudge'' (2014). It peaked at 36 of the charts and was there for eleven weeks. At the 2015 ''NME'' Awards, "Zombie" won two awards: Best Track and Best Video.

Background

"Zombie" is an

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

song about being unproductive. In an interview with ''

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an enginee ...

'', Jamie said, " can be frustrating when you don’t feel you’re writing anything new. There’s lots of different tricks you can use to get yourself writing again. The best one’s probably to read a book. Just seeing someone else say something in a different way immediately sparks you out of your own shit. On this record, I was reading a lot of

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

. Lots of Plath and Alvarez."

Critical reception

Ed Potton of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' called the song "a cocktail of self-loathing and muscular poetry with a chorus that weirdly but brilliantly recalls

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man (song), Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo ...

's We Didn't Start the Fire."

Music video

The music video, directed by James Slater, was inspired by the film '' Shaun of the Dead'' (2005). It features Jamie and his band performing in a near-empty pub. As the song goes on, they begin turning into zombies. Limbs fall off, but no one else in the pub pays any attention.

Charts

Sales and certifications

References

{{Authority control 2014 singles 2014 songs Jamie T songs