Love the Lyrics Hate The Music

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

like the DAnielson Familie

― anthony, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

or canibus.

― ethan, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Baha Men.

― Ronan, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

New Order.

― N., Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like New Order but jesus after watching a live recording of them last night I wanted to beat Barney to a pulp and tell him to go and learn to sing less annoyingly. It was like when you're sitting in a chair and you realise when you get up you weren't comfortable and your back hurts, I was sitting there listening to him sing and I realised it had been annoying me for the entire duration of the concert.

― Ronan, Saturday, 23 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Culturcide (though the music on "Consider Museums As Concentration Camps" isn't bad)--great vicious lyrics whose music is nearly impossible to bear on anything but the records where other people provided it. Runner-up: Artless.

― Douglas, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Most obviously The Blue Nile. I am a product of the '90s: I do not 'do' gated snares.

― powertonevolume, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ronan..it wasn`t a video of a recent concert by any chance? barney`s always been a crap singer but these days he`s annoying and mannered to boot. he sounds so much better if he doesn`t TRY to sing well...

― nelly, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

New Order.
Are you serious Nick? New Order's lyrics are total rubbish. Barney could sing whatever he wanted it would not change the genius of their music which is purely in their sound and melodies.

― alex in mainhattan, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Rainhard Fendrich

― Colin Meeder, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No alex, I was not being serious. Although I do think Barney's lyrics come in for some unfair stick on ILM.

― N., Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

smiths.

― fields of salmon, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

For obvious reasons, I can't think of many because I don't allow too many to reside on my cd rack, but of those at hand, I can say Fiona Apple and, to some extent, Tori Amos. I find Fiona Apple to have a really good flow and vocabulary in her lyric, but with no real hook that works for me. Tori Amos can suck me in with a well-written lyric but can be a little aggravating in the presentation.

― Geneve Champoux, Tuesday, 26 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Arrgh. Geneve's Tori Amos apologism has queered my Fiona Apple loving pitch.

― N., Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I will stick up for Barney Summner's lyrics until I have no breath left in me. Some of them are shocking ('Turn My Way' on 'Get Ready' is the song that springs to mind), but I can forgive anything for 'Bizarre Love Triangle' which is possibly one of my favourite songs ever. I could go on about why for ever, but I am sure I would get very boring and I haven't eaten lunch yet and I'm hungry.

― Anna, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I could go on about why for ever,
but I am sure I would get very boring
and I haven't eaten lunch yet
and I'm hungry.

Wouldn't that be some great lyrics for a New Order song?

Turn my Way is actually great. The dumb lyrics make it even better:
I don't wanna be like other people are
Don't wanna own a key, don't wanna wash my car
Don't wanna have to work like other people do
I want it to be free, I want it to be true

How old is Barney? Did he turn 18 already? And this excerpt from the song is actually the best part, also rhyme wise.

― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Barney's lyrics get too much stick? I beg to differ. What usually happens is that somebody - generally one of the Alexes - says ha ha Barney is rubbish and then you and me and Dr C and now Anna all jump in and go no New Order's lyrics are ACE (I will now annoy Alex even more by saying they are much better than Joy Division's). I think a mob mentality may be developing.

― Tom, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They're ace lyrics because they're so bloody obvious. Lyrics are overrated anyway.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually thats a bit glib. But I guess I'm saying I like the lyrics because I think they're quite simple and yet manage to work really well. I can't stand convoluted lyrics anyway. I mean "here comes love, it's like honey, you can't buy it with money" is as good a pop lyric as I can think of from last year.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

they are much better than Joy Division's
You knew I would jump on this Tom. But seriously "better" is definitely not the right term here. I'd say New Order's lyrics are perfectly adequate for New Order's songs. There is no profundity in them and this fits very well with their music. The focus should be on the tunes and not on the meaning of the words. As pop music lyrics they are perfect. Or would you call Barney's lyrics poetry, Tom? Joy Division's lyrics are darker and more unfathomable and the music as well. The marriage of music and lyrics is again perfect. I expect more from the lyrics of a Leonard Cohen song than from Barney's. A reason is also that musically Cohen is much less interesting than NO but his words matter much more (to me anyway). In some rare cases music and lyrics are both exceptional. I was thinking of Nick Drake and some Joni Mitchell songs.

Have a look at the beginning lines of "Turn My Way":

Take my hand
And don't let go
Trust this man
And let it flow

To rhyme "hand" and "man" sounds really awful to my foreign ears, not to yours Tom?

― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mike "Sport" Murphy writes some terrific lyrics. Unfortunately his records are largely medium-pleasant Waits + Cohen stylings. This may explain the lyric thing.

Apologies to Tom for the Great Evil of Lyric-Quoting, but if ever there were an excuse:

Arguments will rage between committed individuals about substantial issues. In a thousand teenage bedrooms, human passion will erupt into a thousand Kleenex tissues. Bats will keep careening 'round their echoes in their caves on the day they lower you into your grave.

(Now imagine that if lyric-quoting didn't always kill the lines. Plus in a particularly good song.)

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Apparently you'll have to imagine the line breaks, too.

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

six years pass...

Does Anthony mean like the Stooges?

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 06:43 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.rocklibrary.com/images/EntityImages/1000/1076/Bob%20Dylan%205.3.66.jpg

― Creeztophair, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 07:22 (seventeen years ago)

Morrisey/Smiths

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 18:10 (seventeen years ago)

Creeztophair OTM. I don't exactly love his lyrics, but they're a lot more interesting than the dreary moany drone in the background.

― chap, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 18:23 (seventeen years ago)

I'm at a loss here. If I didn't like the music, I wouldn't even pay attention to the lyrics to know whether they were any good or not.

Hmmm, maybe the Hold Steady.

― jaymc, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 18:26 (seventeen years ago)

lindsey buckingham, "go insane"

― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 18:44 (seventeen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.