Cults vs. Richard Swift

IS THIS PLAGIARISM OR HOMAGE?

CULTS has released one of the most anticipated records of the year. They claim in interviews that they wrote all these songs on this debut record in two hours. One of the best and most complicated songs on the album is "BUMPER." You can listen to this song above. You can read in interviews about CULTS' retro sound, much like Lesley Gore, The Ronettes, and The Shangri- Las all in one. This band CULTS is supposed to be both excitingly fresh and retro too.

The problem with this song "Bumper" is it a rip-off of a previously released song "The Bully" by Richard Swift. I don't understand why CULTS decided to rewrite "The Bully?" I can't say that "Bumper" is a better song. At best, it sounds like a clumsy cover with some changed lyrics. I have, when I tried to write songs, pulled out something like the Noel Coward songbook and played song chord sequences, and changed it a bit, until it was something different and something more original. I am wondering how much of CULTS is original. Most of their songs have a deja-vu moment recalling something in the past. It's just up to some musicologist and lawyers to figure out which songs were actually lifted?

I can't believe that a band like CULTS would take credit for someone else's work. Swift himself was not negative (on his facebook page) and considers it "a homage." I know that PJ Harvey refers to Eddie Cochran in a recent song, and Death In Vegas "Scorpio's Rising" has the same riff as Status Quo's "Matchstick Men" but those new songs were entirely different from the originals. I don't understand why a band as big as CULTS doesn't even get challenged for their slight plagiarism? I wonder why not one journalist has asked CULTS about their song "Bumper?" I guess what passes for "journalism" nowadays is a bunch of fan's notes and laziness. Please move on from the press materials next time, you so-called writers.