M. Ward's "You Still Believe in Me"

I just listened to M. Ward's Transistor Radio.  I don't think I've listened to this that much, and last time I listened to it, I almost certainly wasn't as familiar with the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album as I am now.  Because otherwise, I would have noticed that M. Ward's "You Still Believe in Me" is, in some ways, an instrumental cover of the Beach Boys' "You Still Believe in Me" from Pet Sounds.  Mostly, it's a repetition of the opening piano figure, but M. Ward also includes the melody from the verse.  He changes some notes here and there, so it sounds a bit different, but it's still recognizable.

M. Ward's "Hold Time"

This morning, I listened to M. Ward's Hold Time.  At the very end of the title track, the vocals are just "do do do"s.  They sounded really familiar, and I was able to place them as similar to the "do do do"s in the middle of Graham Nash's "Lady of the Island" from Crosby, Stills, and Nash's eponymous debut album.  There are a few phrases consisting of "do do do"s in the middle of "Lady of the Island," but the third one (at about 1:29) is the one that's similar.  (Or, rather, as "Hold Time" is more recent, its "do do do"s are similar to the third phrase in "Lady of the Island.")

I just listened to those two sections back-to-back, and while the rhythms and number of notes are different, the notes themselves are the same.  It's a descending arpeggio on G minor (D to Bb to G), and then an ascending phrase (F to G to Ab).

Like most of these instances where two songs use a similar phrase, I'm not sure if it was intentional.  However, a lot of M. Ward's songs have the same sort of feeling that I get from "Lady of the Island" (although I don't find them quite as melancholic), so I wouldn't discount it.