Green Day have released ‘Kill the DJ,’ the latest advance offering from their forthcoming ’¡Uno!,’ ‘¡Dos!,’ and ‘¡Tre!’ trilogy of albums, and already they are getting a lot of gruff for possibly ripping off the track, which more than one musical pundit has pointed out has more than a passing resemblance to the 2004 crossover hit ‘Take Me Out’ by Scottish post-punk outfit Franz Ferdinand (if you don’t remember the Franz cut, refresh your memory here).

Not so fast, musical pundits. Green Day have a long history of, depending on how you look at it, either borrowing from, paying homage to or blatantly stealing from other musical acts — if you don’t believe us, check out 13 songs that sound suspiciously just like Green Day songs — but one thing those GD tunes have in common with their supposed source material that ‘Kill the DJ’ doesn’t have with ‘Take Me Out’ is an overwhelming, overarching and undeniable similarity.

Yeah, there’s no denying that that the bouncy, three-chord bass line that runs through the main verses of ‘DJ’ sounds a lot like the equally bouncy bass riff in the Franz Ferdinand tune, but that’s where the similarity ends. One shared chord triplet does not a borrowed or stolen song make, and in our minds, that’s the end of that.

Outside of that whole debate, ‘Kill the DJ’ should give old-school Green Day fans something to get excited about. The cut sounds like a return to form of the upbeat, happy-go-lucky golden days before the trio was pursuing rock operas and concept albums, back when all Billie Joe Armstrong and the boys wanted to do was craft the perfect punk-pop ditty: an insanely infectious slab of vocal melodies, fearless drumming and dynamic guitars. They’ve hit that bull’s-eye numerous times in the past, and with ‘Kill the DJ,’ they’ve done it yet again.

Listen to Green Day, ‘Kill the DJ’

8 out of 10 diffuser.fm rating
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