[Decurso]

I know this subject has been hammered out more than once...but I kind of want to frame it in a different context. Namely....being an English speaker who listens to a lot of foreign language bands I do not even remotely understand.

Dylan at his best....gets me right in the nut sack. The Kinks as well. And while I have been pretty disappointed with most of the music recommendations I have received here....Modest Mouse are pretty damned good. Mostly because of their lyrics.

So...my question is...would you still like your favourites if you could not understand them at all? I know I would still like Zeppelin (because lets face it...lyrics were not their strong point)...and I still like a lot bands whom I have NO FUCKING IDEA what they are singing about. But the likes of Dylan, Modest Mouse, etc...yeah. It matters.[/u]
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[theblueboy]

Yeah, the lyrics matter a lot to appreciating my favourites albums. Particularly my indie rock favs like Orange Juice, Belle and Sebastian and The Magnetic Fields. Singer songwriters as well of course.

That said, I guess the lyrics are always secondary to the music, even with stuff like Dylan and Cohen. But great lyrics can turn a decent tune into something incredible. Impossible to imagine liking Idiot Wind or Hallelujah with rubbish lyrics.

With really noisy or heavy rock, the lyrics are probably less important though.

[craola]

Pay close enough attention to the lyrics, and I guess you’d be disappointed more oft than blown away. Despite good intentions. I think it’s a bit unrealistic to expect brilliance on all fronts. This is one of those things that really depends on the artist and their particular intent. Mr. Yorke of Thom Thom & His Merry Heads obviously puts a lot of thought into his lyrics, but you can’t understand his lyrics half the time anyway. His enunciation has a drunken quality about it. But I think peopled likem just fine without any real words involved. Liz Frazer is one of my all time favorite lyricists, and she makes up words all the time and says otherwise nonsensical things about fluffy tufts and the likes. But you take someone like Cliud Cult, and the lyrics are essential to really appreciating Craig Minowa’s music. It’s like that tool in the tool shed that ought only be used well, but it can take the music to a place instrumental can’t fathom. I like writing lyrics just as much as I enjoy writing the music, personally, as a stylistic decision, I suppose. It allows me more opportunity to express myself. I sort of got into all of this because I couldn’t figure out how to. So I guess that makes sense. But yeah, spectrum wise, yes, you’re right. Sometimes they’re quintessential, and sometimes they really don’t matter.
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[Sandinistar]

There is also the category of albums like Horses and Lou Reed's New York in which the whole point is for the music to be only background for the lyrics.
But just as these albums are only about the lyrics, #1 Record is a brilliant record with some definitely mediocre lyrics, where the use of voice as an instrument surpasses anything that voice might have to say.
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[glynspsa]

Some albums i love because of the lyrics some albums i love because of the music some for both and some like astral weeks i love the lyrics even if I'm not always sure what exactly they mean.

[Anti]

Yeah, it just really depends on the artist or album. I love Mark Kozelek for his lyrics. The reason Benji resonates with me so well is because of his melancholic lyrics and the large number of Ohio references. I obviously enjoy his half-spoken, half-sung approach to vocals, but if it was all in a different language it completely annihilates an important dimension of the album for me.

On the other hand, if Playboi Carti happened to release Die Lit entirely in Spanish, I probably wouldn't mind because I enjoy the album for the hypnotic and psychedlic trap beats, not necessarily Carti's delivery.

Perfect example further explaining my point:

SKYDRVG 1.0 by Pedro LaDroga & $kyhook

I don't understand a single world in this album because it's in Spanish, but this is a cloud rap masterpiece.
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[indieshins]

I am a lyrics man, as I'm a writer, but I think in short the answer to your question is still yes. There are far too many other qualities among great bands - melody, production, instrumental complexity etc. - for me to dismiss something because the lyrics are subpar (unless they're really bad).

I mean, Sigur Ros sing in a made-up language half the time. Literally no-one understands their lyrics when they sing in this language. Yet their music is profoundly beautiful and moving. So I think it really depends on the genre, and whether the other parts of the song are doing their job.
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[RoundTheBend]

Lyrics are often 20% of what I like about a song/musical artist.

Of course if they are like, yo blunts and bitches yo yo yo, but that's the depth of their song, then that 20% goes to 150% not liking it.

Often clever lyrics are something I appreciate as much as 5 years later. Or it's something silly simple and makes me smile in that moment right away, but really doesn't have incredible depth to it either. Like : "it's ok to eat fish cause they don't have any feelings" - I think this touches on a lot of different things all at once. It's simple, not too deep, yet incredibly clever.

If I wanted poetry, I'd go read it. Opera for example, I'll read it and then listen to it. And if I like the message more than the music, I typically won't go listen to it again. Or if I like the music more than the message, I'll likely ignore the lyrics.

Having said that, I think the solid songwriter conveys a complex message through simple word choice and delivery, and the songs that I know something about usually are like that. Songs that I have no idea what they are about, probably is the artists fault for being a shit songwriter as much as it is mine for not taking the time to read their "poetry". Make sense? Like, the delivery of it and the word choice should really be in a way that lends to it being heard, if they want it to be.


Also - speaking of delivery - I think this is exactly why singers in a foreign language can still reach others, at least at an emotional level, because it's not the meaning of the words, rather the delivery of them that matters most. I think that's what divides good music from weak.

[bobbyb5]

I guess we all have our favorites who come up with lyrics that are actually worth paying attention to, but 90% of the time the only value that they have is giving you something to sing along to so you don't have to hum along to the music. The majority of lyrics are nothing but a bunch of cliches all strung together. And they hardly ever rise above High School level poetry written by a 16 year old. It's not important though, because it doesn't make me like my favorite music any less. I don't think I would like my favorite music more if it had better lyrics.

[gloriousgoo]

To me, lyrics have always been about 80% of music. I view the music itself as a way to set the tone for the lyrics and as simply another tool to convey the overall mood of the song. Hell, when I listen to an album, one of the main things for me is gauging how much I can relate to the overall message of it. If there's lyrics that I can't relate to at all or understand their origin it doesn't really matter how much I like the music, I'm never going to listen to that album again. Period. It's not worth my time to try to listen to something I fundamentally can never understand.