Pop's next superstar Natalia Kills is the British-born, US-A&Rd missing link between Lady Gaga and 'Rated R'-era Rihanna. After a couple of false starts her assault on pop began properly at the end of last year when 'Zombie' first appeared online. Another buzz track, 'Activate My Heart', appeared on her site and iTunes earlier this month, and there seems to be a very carefully planned dripfeed of 'extra content' - including a web TV show called Love, Kills - leading to Natalia's full launch later in the year. Basically what we've got here is Lady Gaga's record label, will.i.am at the controls and a fiercely creative songstrel out front so if people aren't scared off by the posturing it's job done as far as we're concerned. There's an interview with RWD which does a good job of capturing Natalia's spirit.
Compared with the splendidly superstylised radio edit this Kleerup reimagining of 'Zombie' is one of those mixes that makes a little extra sense of what's going on in a song and may even hint at what's to come once all the buzz track business it out of the way. Very good.
