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Kelly Clarkson’s new single sounds freakishly like Jimmy Eat World’s biggest hit

Kelly Clarkson performs in concert
Kelly Clarkson performs in concert
Kelly Clarkson performs in concert
Jason Daniels

Kelly Clarkson dropped the first single from her upcoming seventh studio album this morning. The song, titled “Heartbeat Song,” gave me a bit of deja vu when I first listened. Something about the chorus sounded familiar.

Listen to the song here:

At first, I thought the similarity was reminding me of Jessie J’s “Price Tag,” but the cadence of the chorus’s “This is my heartbeat song/ and I’m gonna play it/ been so long I forgot how to turn it up up up up all night long,” sounded like something even older to me.

It sounded like Jimmy Eat World:

The similarities become even more stark when you play the two songs at the same time:

YouTube Doubler

Now, to be fair, most pop songs build off the many, many pop songs that have come before. But this is a little too close to seem like a coincidence, and because of the call-back effect, Clarkson’s new song sounds 15 years old. That’s likely not what the pop singer was trying for.

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