Zombie by The Cranberries

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 13

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). This page shows that transcription as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Part 1 (0:00)

• Em – Cmaj7 – G6 – Dadd9/F♯ (×2)
  i – bVImaj7 – bIII6 – bVIIadd9 (bass F♯)

Part 2 (0:25)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 3 (0:48)

• Em – Cmaj7 – G – Dadd9/F♯ (×2)
  i – bVImaj7 – bIII – bVIIadd9 (bass F♯)

Part 4 (1:11)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:48).

Part 5 (1:35)

• Em – C – G – D/F♯ (×2)
  i – bVI – bIII – bVII⁶

Part 6 (1:58)

• Em – C – G – D/F♯ – Em – Cmaj7 – G – Dadd9/F♯
  i – bVI – bIII – bVII⁶ – i – bVImaj7 – bIII – bVIIadd9 (bass F♯)

Part 7 (2:21)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:48).

Part 8 (2:44)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:48).

Part 9 (3:07)

Same chords as Part 5 (1:35).

Part 10 (3:30)

Same chords as Part 5 (1:35).

Part 11 (3:52)

• Em
  i

Part 12 (4:15)

• C – G – D/F♯ – Em (×2)
  bVI – bIII – bVII⁶ – i

Part 13 (4:38)

• C – G – D/F♯ – Em
  bVI – bIII – bVII⁶ – i

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (No Need To Argue), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (No Need To Argue), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.