Lyrix

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I've always thought of the Kinks as being founding fathers of a lyrical strain in British pop - wit, "character songs", satire gentle and vicious, etc etc.

I wonder if this is just received wisdom though - not that the Kinks didn't do it and weren't good at it but their peers often did it too, so maybe it's the way they delivered the lyrics vocally or the melodies they set them to that give me that impression.

Anyway, I'd like to know what you think about lyrics - when you notice them, how highly you value them, and so on.

Or actually, let's make this more concrete: what recent records do you think have good lyrics?

Comments

Stains On My T-Shirt

[koganbot]

Ashlee Simpson. So much to say, don't know where to start, and I need to go out now. Said over in my own livejournal that no matter what's going on in the song there will be these sudden moments of eloquence, words that suddenly open everything up into the richness of a human being. None of the people involved (Ashlee, Kara, et al.) seem to be analytically piercing thinkers, yet somehow Ashlee's words give you a much deeper picture of a complexity of an actual relationship than you ever get from Ray Davies or even Mick Jagger (the latter being the man who takes my vote as best lyricist ever). And there are fewer such moments on Ashlee's second album than her first (not to mention certifiably ordinary moments, of course), so I wouldn't say that this woman knows what she's doing; but she did something: created a woman, got her on record.

Re: Stains On My T-Shirt

[koganbot]

(Not to mention certifiably ordinary moments = more of these on the second album than the first, also.)

Re: Stains On My T-Shirt

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, listened to I Am Me several times in the past two days and aside from a few key tracks it really doesn't captivate me like Autobiography does -- there are way fewer little crevices to explore, most everything is surface (the surface is impressive, so I really enjoy listening to it). Reminds me of the bigness and (relative) lack of depth in the second season of her show, actually, where you start to think she's trying to move toward something and doesn't know quite what it is, whereas in the first show and on the first album she has no clue about ANYTHING but is undeniably moving toward something...this Ashlee-idea that's quite interesting on both the show and the album, album being markedly better than the show -- and, as girlboymusic reminds me all the time, this is probably because of the fluidity of co-authorship. I can't tell a Kara line from an Ashlee or John or ______ line on Autobiography, can only guess, but there are several lines on her second alb where I go "KARA!" or similar reaction, a sort of fragmentedness, despite the relative strength of the tunes, amazing production.)