After reading Ty’s post about narrative in song lyrics below, I got to thinking about how often, in general, I ignore lyrics in music. I consider the voice to be an instrument insomuch as it creates a sound, and I think a lot of the new, lo-fi, shoegaze-y bands, for whom Pitchfork’s boner throbs tremendously, have figured this out, too, as they tend to obscure their lyrics in reverb and fuzz. I was telling a friend the other day that the only time I listen to lyrics for the sake of listening to good song lyrics is when I’m listening to folk, and can focus more on the language, since there are usually fewer instruments to compete with the language. But the more I think about it, that’s bullshit, because whenever I have time to sit down and focus on anything that demands attention, I read. I’m not saying there is no such thing as brilliant song lyrics, which tell stories that have existed since the beginning of time, but I don’t listen to music to comprehend the meaning behind lyrics, anyway, because most song lyrics either suck (New Order, I’m looking at you), or are perfectly fine, but don’t transcend anything the that music can do on its own. The band I’m listening to right now, Maserati, who sort of sound like a muscular, complex, and more fleshed out soundtrack to an old Mega Man game, or something, would have vaguely funny but terrible lyrics if they sang – the theme song to Orgazmo comes to mind. They’re a little too aggressive and intense to soundtrack important, submission-bound writing, but they’re good for writing a blog post, for example. (Not that blog posts aren’t important, mind you, but there’s less pressure. Which is sort of ironic, since more people will see this than 95% of everything else I write, but what can ya do.) What about you? Yea or nay to listening to music while reading/writing? If so, any suggestions?

There’s been a lot of talk on Bark about cool people. Here’s are video arguments for:

Lou Reed

David Byrne

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