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The Satanic Verses Honor For Most Sinister J-Pop Cover/Best Reimagining Of The Year: Zana Caroline’s “Schokoladige Disko”

Perfume’s “Chocolate Disco” describes Valentine’s Day through the eyes of a high school student, the narrator observing how her classroom turns into a dance floor on the 14th. The music, appropriately, is a confectionery bop capped by a adorable chorus. Zana Caroline takes the chorus of “Chocolate Disco” and transforms it into “Schokoladige Disko,” a song that is certainly not conjuring up the feeling of purchasing peanut butter cups at Target for your fifth-period crush. This is shadow-draped dance music with a sinister streak, the chorus that Perfume delivered with such glee turned into this dead-eyed thing that is really quite hypnotic. The lyrics on Caroline’s version stay pretty faithful to what the lyrics in the original focus on, but delivered in an icy way that turns them from innocence to desperation.

Yet what prevents “Schokoladige Disko” from being a clever gimmick and rather a really good song is that it remains just as dancey as Perfume’s version, albeit with an entirely different mood swapped in. Yeah, Caroline’s Valentine’s Day drops the candy-shell of Perfume’s take in favor of chewing on icicles, but you can still move to it. Listen below.

Go here for the original post, and the song. Zana Caroline songs here.