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Underground > Radio & Music >

Music vs Lyrics - do you have a preference? Does it matter?

  
 
All Acting Regiment
20:30 / 21.12.07
Is music spoiled for you if there are no lyrics?

For me, it doesn't matter whether or not there's any singing involved in the composition. What does matter is whether or not any singing there is means something, holds together, is witty and so on. This seems to be quite rare among my peer group, and is maybe why of contemporary pop I prefer M.I.A. and electronic-noises-dancing music to anything involving guitars - lyrics on the level of the Smiths seem impossible to find, and within that thing of indie (which I have a weird hate but almost want to be good relationship with) we seem to be lacking even the standard of Blur and Pulp - apart from the 'Watch movies with the lights on ... keep your tights on' of the Long Blondes it tends to involve either non-wit - Woah-a-woh-oh! followed by non sequiturs that do not make grammatical or syntactic sense - or terrible attempts at wit (i.e. the Kaiser Shits).

I was shocked to find myself thinking 'This is good' whilst listening to a certain song that goes 'I buy books/I never read/Now let's here some more about meeeeee' and finding out it was Maximo Park. I mean they're not particularly good lyrics but at least they have some kind of self-deprecative sense of humour, vaguely.

Singer-songwriter types tend to be singing very dull things slowly over minor chords. Notice Dylan songs tend to be in a major key - perhaps they don't need 'deep' emotion from the music itself. Or am I wrong here? Also, am I missing an incrediby good singer-songwriter?

What do you think? Please digress within the theme.
 
 
Pingle!Pop
16:04 / 22.12.07
What do you mean by "even the standard of Blur and Pulp"? Pulp lyrics are absolutely brilliant!

That said, I'm really not finding myself at all convinced by the idea that lyrics (or even specifically the lyrics of indie bands and singer-songwriters) have deteriorated since the middle of last decade, whether that be because all bands then were at at least a Blur/Pulp standard, or because such lyrical quality is rare these days. Basically, I can think of plenty of bands and singer-songwriters whose lyrics are at least as good as the Long Blondes. And, obviously, plenty of utter lyrical rubbish back then.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
16:24 / 22.12.07
Absolutely. Here I would like to stick my 'poorly thought out rambling' sign up. I seem incapable of mooching about music in any more sensible way.
 
 
Shiny: Well Over Thirty
09:33 / 23.12.07
Hmmmmm, interesting question. For me it depends on the style of music mainly. For instance I find I have a great love for vocal based charty dance music, when the singing is good, even though the actual words being sung tend to be fairly awful, and that I actually don't really care much what the words are so long as they are well sung, and that I don't enjoy dance music sans singing very much at all.

On the other hand when it comes to much of indie music the words are the things that first grab me. I love the music of Pulp for instance, but it was the lyrics I first fell in love with, and the same is true for pretty much every indie type act I enjoy. And with good lyrics an indie band can get away with far ropier singing than I'd let a dance act get away with and still impress me.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
14:58 / 27.12.07
What do people think about whether or not a given singer wrote the song? For me this is a non-issue (a good actor is a good actor regardless of whether they wrote the play), and I think any strong opinions on it are likely to be poor, but does anyone have any preferences?

Male and female voices - again, do you prefer one or the other?
 
 
johnny enigma
17:59 / 30.12.07
I don't think it matters who wrote the song - it's how it's sung that matters.

And as vocals versus non vocals, well it's all about horses for courses as far as I'm concerned. Godspeed You Black Emperor! would sound stupid with singing, The Clash would sound stupid without it (all wits feel free to make a joke about The Clash or GYBE! being stupid already).

I think I tend to relate to music with words more generally because I'm naturally quite a wordy person (I was going to say "literary" but that sounds some what pretentious). Generally I'm not too bothered about the standard of a bands' lyrics as it's the overall effect that I'm interested in but alot of my favourite "bands" tend to have quite strong lyrics (eg Dresden Dolls). However, nonsensical lyrical glitches can bug the hell out of me, ruining entire songs. For instance, Cat Stevens' "Father And Son" contains the line " You're still young - that's your fault". How can being young possibly be anyone's fault? Stupid Cat Stevens. And don't even get me started on the non-ironicness (made up word alert!) of Alanis Morrissettes' "Ironic"..............
 
 
Shiny: Well Over Thirty
18:58 / 31.12.07
Couldn't care less who wrote the song, or the lyrics, so long as the singer's putting on a good performance. And that is a talent not necessarily connected to the ability to write fantastic music or lyrics in my opinion. That said once I've heard a really good version of a song that one tends to become the definitive one in my mind, so I'm not wildly into covers unless something completely different is done with the song, even if it's a techincally more proficient cover.

With regards to male or female voices, I do find myself more often impressed by female singers. I'm not quite sure why that is - I think part of it is that a lot of the male fronted acts I'm into tend to be indie or rock acts, in which the singers might be impressive performers, but are not necessarily terribly good singers per se. I think there might also be an element of attraction at work with my preferences there, I'm not honestly sure.
 
 
TeN
03:33 / 06.01.08
"Godspeed You Black Emperor! would sound stupid with singing"
ever heard A Silver Mt. Zion?
I think I like them better
and it's partly because of the vocals
 
 
The Black Sheep Girl
13:12 / 09.01.08
Is music spoiled for you if there are no lyrics?

Absolutely not, as long as the composition is good. There is a great instrumental band from Texas called Explosions In The Sky. They're fantastic live and put up wonderful, extremely emotional performances. Highly recommended.

Also, am I missing an incrediby good singer-songwriter?

Yes, if you've never heard of Will Sheff. If I say the man is a genius it will be an understatement. Will is the frontman of another Texas-based indie band (with various influences) called Okkervil River. He's not only an incredibly talented song-writer but also a wonderful singer and performer with a totally amazing voice. He's a very intelligent guy, a literate and hell, he's got a way with words. His lyrics are full of beautiful imagery and wonderful characters, amazing stories and his voice is just pure bliss. I strongly recommend seeing the band live if you have a chance. December last year was the first time I had a chance to see them live - it was magic. They're coming back to London on 5th Feb (already purchsed my tickets!) and I just can't wait to see them again. They're such a pleasure to watch 'cause they're such skilled musicians, one of those bands that totally enjoy playing together and it shows, they communicate with wide grins and nods, they can tune their guitars without interrupting the performance and the fact that they have a few drinks before the show doesn't make them forget their lyrics (I know bands that do... and bands I liked but their live performances were diseastrous...). The OR gig was just stunning, they always give 200% and Will just sings his heart out every time he's on stage.

So if you're looking for some quality lyric-writing you must check out Will Sheff and Okkervil River. Him and Jonathan Meiburg (the keyboardist from OR) also play in another band called Shearwater - also worth checking out.

Also, with regards to quality lyrics I must mention Elliott Smith (sadly not with us anymore) and his incredible song-writing (I love him so much it hurts) and Neutral Milk Hotel and the man behind it - Jeff Mangum. The band have split up now and it's such a shame cause they were amazing. They recorded two albums: On Avery Island and the beautiful In the Aeroplane over the Sea, which made me cry many a time.

Oh, and I almost forgot about Jeff Lewis and his freaky-folk songs - endless joy.

I'd also like to point out that,for me, great singing is not about a flawless voice and running through scales faultlessly. It really is about expressing emotions and in this respect artist like Bob Dylan, Daniel Johnston, Tom Waits and the three abovementioned are absolutely amazing singers.

Does anyone here agree with me on these?
 
  
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