Zombie Lyrics – YUNGBLUD & The Smashing Pumpkins

YUNGBLUD ushers in 2026 with a brooding reawakening of his gut-punch anthem “Zombie,” teaming up with The Smashing Pumpkins for a version that trades raw indie rock for shadowy, alt-grunge depths—dropping January 1 via Locomotion Recordings, it’s already haunting playlists like a fresh scar.

This reimagined cut amps up the original’s fragile ache into something heavier, courtesy of music from Matt Schwartz and Billy Corgan, with lyrics penned by YUNGBLUD and Schwartz. Dom Harrison—aka YUNGBLUD—kicks off with hushed confessions of bottled hurt (“If I was to talk about the words / They would hurt”), his voice cracking over sparse guitars that swell into Corgan’s signature swirl on verse two, evoking moon-crash fantasies and prayerful pleas. It’s post-punk laced with emo introspection, those looping choruses (“Would you even want me looking like a zombie?”) hitting like a shared breakdown under festival lights.

Thematically, it’s trauma therapy set to riff: grappling with love’s undead grip, the world’s indifferent spin, and that zombie stare of self-doubt—personal as hell, born from Harrison’s own mental health battles, now echoed in Corgan’s world-weary drawl. Video director Charlie Sarsfield’s visual drops today, promising glitchy, dreamlike visuals that mirror the track’s unraveling vibe, teased on YUNGBLUD’s Insta with clips of the duo in a fog-drenched studio.

“Zombie” first clawed its way out May 30, 2025, as track four on Idols, YUNGBLUD’s fourth LP—a 12-song roar clocking 45 minutes of defiant pop-punk fury. The album’s a middle finger to idol worship, stacked with singles like the soaring “Hello Heaven, Hello,” the lovesick “Lovesick Lullaby,” and anthems “The Greatest Parade” and “Change (For What?),” all wrapped in live-wire energy that snagged a Grammy nod for Song of the Year. Recorded amid Harrison’s globe-trotting haze, it’s his most unfiltered yet, ditching gloss for garage-born grit that feels like screaming in a mirror.

Harrison’s at his boldest post-Idols, the Doncaster disruptor who turned TikTok tantrums into arena sellouts now bridging gens with this Pumpkins linkup—Corgan, the grunge godfather, called it “a spark across decades” in a fresh NME chat. Fresh off canceling late-’25 tour dates for burnout recovery, he’s rebounding with February’s Idols world trek, proving vulnerability’s his sharpest blade. This collab? It’s evolution in echo, YUNGBLUD honoring his alt-rock heroes while carving deeper into the scars.

Dive into the Zombie lyrics below and unpack its raw narrative. Don’t miss other Idols tracks for more of YUNGBLUD’s defiant emotional anthems.