It's in your reach... Concentrate

[mr_manifesto]

I've been listening to this one Placebo song a lot lately. It's not even from their latest album, and I've heard hundreds of times already... but it's just so cool. If you get on Kazaa sometime look for it. I hate quoting lyrics (it's so sophomoric), unless I'm using them to communicate a specific idea/concept to someone and the words in question

Comments

About Lyrics

[mr_manifesto]

I was just thinking about a conversation we had on MSN when I sent you Nothing Else because, lyrically, it had a little to do with what we were talking about. You said something to the effect that lyrics weren't important at all to you, and I said that I, for the most part, felt the same way. But it stuck in my mind that maybe you were getting the wrong impression. To me, it looked like I came off as one of those dumb friendly type people who simply agrees with whatever their friends say just to be pleasant. That couldn't be further from the truth. I would never pretend to agree with you about anything and I hope that you would do the same with me.

Up until a few years ago whenever a discussion about the importance of lyrics in music came up I took the stance that lyrics were overrated. My position was that lyrics are more a product of environment & fashion rather than anything else. For example if you were in a hair band in the late 80's you would sing about getting laid and loving some random "hot" chick. But, truthfully, that only applied to the mainstream. When the mainstream took a left turn in the early 90's then lyrics became about social angst, heroin addiction, and general malaise. So one can argue that mainstream lyrics are indeed a product of fashion. To this date I would say that 90% of what is out there lyrically, is just filler; Something to placate what is perceived as what the general public wants to hear.

My stance on the validity of lyrics really began to change in 2000 when I got King James Version by Harvey Danger. Here was a band that was not only was making some of the most incredible music I had ever heard, but it was accompanied by words that I had only imagined existed in conversations that I had with defrocked. Eloquent & amazing, speaking to not only exactly how I feel in my every day life, but adding new concepts that, perhaps, had only had the surface scratched before. When I would listen to this album I would often sit there going "yes, that is exactly it". That album gave me a better appreciation of lyrics.

There are other bands that have definitely written poignant words in my mind. Off the top of my head I would include the band mentioned in this entry (placebo), as well as Rush/Geddy Lee, later Pearl Jam, Mourning Widows/Nuno Bettencourt, The Psychedelic Furs, Super Transatlantic, D-A-D, flickerstick, later duran duran, later love/hate, and later blackboard jungle just to name a few. There have also been plenty of bands that I like that have had one album that is far superior to others lyrically.

So I guess these days I do read a bit more into the lyrics than I used to. I still listen to some bands with horrible lyrics but I do find it easier to be singing along with words that I believe in. In the long run I guess it also has to with the fact that with so much music out there why not be a little more picky? Why not listen to music that is not only great from a musical/melody standpoint, but from a lyrical one as well. It seems to me that great lyrics coupled with amazing music has a far more powerful effect on the listener. I still say that most of it is crap... it's just a really nice treat when the lyrics are on par with the music...

... Next time we IM I'll pass along some Harvey Danger. tunes... I really hope that you like those more, they're my favourite band!

Re: About Lyrics

[weirdchylde]

wow....um......ok!