Modern English Say The Strokes Lifted "I Melt With You" For "Bad Decisions"
In a clip captioned "We have beef with the Strokes," the new wave veterans joked about the resemblance before adding: "just kidding we still love them."
Modern English have revisited the long-running comparison between their 1982 hit "I Melt With You" and The Strokes' "Bad Decisions." In a new video posted with the caption "We have beef with the Strokes," the new wave band addressed the similarity, clearly with tongue in cheek.
The subject came up after a recent encounter. Mick Conroy said that Mom Jeans had been around the day before, and one of them asked whether the group had ever heard The Strokes. Robbie Grey replied that he'd known them for roughly 30 years and said the New York band had ripped off "I Melt With You." Conroy echoed the claim, while on-screen text closed the bit: "just kidding we still love them."
The comparison isn't new. When "Bad Decisions" arrived in 2020 as the second single from The New Abnormal, listeners quickly flagged how closely it tracked the Modern English song. The track's credits, however, list the writers of Billy Idol's 1981 staple "Dancing With Myself" — with no Modern English names attached.
Despite the framing, the clip makes plain that there's no actual dispute between the two camps. "I Melt With You" also continues to surface elsewhere: Olivia Rodrigo recently named it a perfect wedding song during an appearance on Good Morning America.
Reported from Stereogum
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