Plagiarism or intentional hat tip?

Ok so I was checking out some new music on my American iTunes account, and up there this week there is a free video to download. It's a song by Friendly Fires called "Skeleton Boy". Now, I haven't really previously listened to this band, but I've seen their name banded about, so I thought "Hey, I'll give them a shot."


After about 50 seconds of disco-electro dance-indie pop, I was subjected to the most incredible rip-off of a song I have heard... probably ever. I was literally dumfounded by the exact copy of the rythm and melody of the 1990's dance pop hit "You're Not Alone" by Olive.


How can they expect to get away with this? I mean, are they aware of this 'borrowing' of a top ten hit melody? And if so, to what ends have they gone to clear the rights to use it?

To me this is utter laziness on a grand scale. I actually think the first 49 seconds of their song is pretty good (if you like that sort of thing.), but to not even bother writing your own chorus, and to simply steal another one is a pretty poor show. Just changing some lyrics is not good enough kids!

Anyway, judge for yourself:

FRIENDLY FIRES vs. OLIVE