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

Mix Your Milk With My Cocoa Puff, Milky Milky Riiiiight

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

An obvious recent one - 'Umbrella'. Sweet and soppy, but not gushing. Practical, even!

At the other end of the respectability scale you have Fergie/Black Eyed Peas (not just 'My Humps', but 'Fergalicious', 'Big Girls Don't Cry' and , where the lyrics are so astonishing/jaw-droppingly mental that one suddenly realises they are utter genius and transform mediocre beats into a thing of wonder and joy.

Even Rihanna jumps on the catchy nonsense bandwagon with her 'ella-ella-eh-eh-eh' - although the song would have probably worked without it, you can't deny it adds that extra woomph to the song.

I'm not a massive fan of non-Anglophone lyrics, but I do love stilted translations. Sentences that make perfect grammatical sense (or not) but that no native English speaker would dream of constructing. See Infernal, Cansei etc.

Re: Mix Your Milk With My Cocoa Puff, Milky Milky Riiiiight

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Goddammit I should proof read my comments. "not just 'My Humps', but 'Fergalicious', 'Big Girls Don't Cry' and even 'London Bridge*')


*"So get up out ma face! Before I spray a can of mace! My lips make you wanna have a taste! You got the zz zz zz, I got the bass!"

Re: Mix Your Milk With My Cocoa Puff, Milky Milky Riiiiight

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I think Fergie's lyrics are quite good, if often bonkers (because they're bonkers). She has these contradictions going on in her songs that make her both insane and weirdly relatable -- "I see you talkin' bout me on the Internet" in the song about how she doesn't care what her haters say about her (I mean Jesus, I assume she pays attention to the press but I wouldn't have guessed she GOOGLES herself! Me too!), or the entirety of "Glamorous," which I'm still totally unable to parse. She's bragging about flying first class, you can't party with her until you've got MONEYMONEYMONEY, but she really wants you to know that she visits her family on the holidays and still likes Taco Bell. (Me too!)

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Glamourous mmmm, the flouncy-flouncy is the line of the year for me so far. It's berserk on so many levels...

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

"Flossy flossy," isn't it?

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Is it? I suppose she could be pronouncing "the flowsy-flowsy"... Flossy seems more likely but infinitely more boring. Ah well.

Re: Mix Your Milk With My Cocoa Puff, Milky Milky Riiiiight

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

She is a mystery wrapped inside a conundrum. It's fascinating!

Infernal are quite, quite bonkers. There's a spoken word section in the middle of 'A To The B' where she affects a posh English accent to say "It seems to me that all strong independent women make men lazy. All of a sudden they seem to think they don't have to court us properly!", then swings wildly into California-girl for "But boys, let me tell you something, there's nothing like a man who knows how to treat a lady". And the main chorus riff is all about CROSSING AN OCEAN. AWESOME!