So, I know I'm not the only one who loves a chorus, or an entire song, or an entire album solely because of lyrics. The lyrics can be profound and philosophical observations about the world, they can express emotions in a way that connect to us as listeners that have the capacity to be moved by mere sounds, or they can be downright witty linguistic turns that catch us off guard as brilliant uses of language and rhetoric.

So then, what are some of your favorite lyrics from music that has been released in 2009? They can be entire songs, or as short as a single phrase.

I'll get us started with a few of my favorites:

"One Wing" by Wilco
We belonged to a bird
Who cast his shadow on this world
You were a blessing and I was a curse
I did my best not to make things worse, for you
It isn't true

I always knew this would be our fate
This is what happens when we separate
This is what happens to all dead weight, eventually

We may as well be made of stone
We can't be formed

One wing will never fly
Neither yours nor mine
I fear we can only wave goodbye



From "You Go On Ahead" by Sunset Rubdown
When me and the boys were out we killed a thousand butterflies, so I put their wings into my mouth and said a prayer for our safe arrival



And, for my Hold Steady fanatics, from their new song "Separate Vacations":
You're hot and you're scared that there's not enough air
You're hot and you're bright and there's not enough light
Your friends think you're settled, you're scared that they're right
You're hot and you're bright and there's not enough light
Your friends think you're settled and now you're taking separate vacations
Now you're taking separate vacations*



And lastly...needing no real introduction:
I'm at the Pizza Hut, I'm at the Taco Bell, I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell


*Three new Hold Steady songs were previewed last week at a live performance, which was recorded, and you can download the bootleg from their live archive.

Some of my favorite lyrics from this year:

Tightrope - Yeasayer

"So you're wishing that you never did
All the embarrassing things you've done
And you're wishing you could set it right
And you're wishing you could stay the night
But then I go again, wishing never solved a problem
If you wanna get it big time, go ahead and get it get it big time"

I can definitely relate to the whole looking back on things from the past and wanting to redo them angle, as I think most of us can. But then again wishing never solved my problems.

Auditorium (The Slick Rick verse)

"It's The Patch; I'm a soldier in the middle of Iraq
We'll say about noon-ish, comin' out the whip
And looking at me curious: a young Iraqi kid
Carrying laundry, "What's wrong G, hungry?"
"No, gimme my oil, get fuck out my country!"

Typical Slick Rick greatness. This is also the hardest I've laughed at a song all year.

Babys - Bon Iver

"Summer comes, to multiply.
Summer comes, to multiply."

At the start of the summer, did this line not sound like a direct statement from mother nature? I think the way this line is delivered from Justin Vernon makes this one great as well.

I'm a big lyrics man. I gravitate to one-liners more than poetry, but I'll try to post some of both.

"I'm in love with a girl in my comic shop / She's a girl who likes comics, she probably gets that a lot."
- Art Brut, DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake

"We run the gauntlet / Must get to France / So we can french kiss some french girls!"
- Japandroids, Wet Hair

"Your style is such a mess girl / I should know I used to date a stylist."
- Japandroids, Heart Sweats

"Now we can see, but the images don't stick / Our enemies lay dead on the ground but still we kick!"
- The Thermals, Now We Can See

"Goddamnit, what's the time? / The babysitter needs a lift by nine / What's with that fucking kid? / Now who will wax my crucifix?"
- Future of the Left, You Need Satan More Than He Needs You

"You've been humming in a daze forever / Praying for Pavement to get back together."
- The National, So Far Around The Bend

"Then the snow started falling / We were stuck out in your car / You were rubbing both my hands / Chewing on a candy bar."
- Bon Iver, Blood Bank

"What came first, the chicken or the dickhead?"
- Arctic Monkeys, Pretty Visitors

"These girls fall like dominos."
- The Big Pink, Dominos

Speaking of Art Brut, I think "The Passenger" is one of the funniest and most relatable songs I've ever heard:

"I know there's somewhere I'm supposed to be/
And I'm gonna get there eventually/
But when I'm travelling from A to B/
I'm avoiding my responsibility/
And I love the thrill of being last/
Bus and trains don't go that fast"

And I'm kind of a transit geek so that adds extra points for me.

Animal Collective - No More Runnin

No more running, says my mind
All this movement has just proved
Your kisses are too fine

Although it's not that deep, that part of the song hits me every time.

I liked St. Vincent's use of words on Actor. Her lyrics often have unusual phrases/references in them that I think are cool (particularly because of how she sings them, in her kind of mannered 'pretty' voice):
"I lick the ice cube from your empty glass"
and
"I sit transfixed by a hole in your t shirt"
(from "The Party")
or
"Playboys under your mattress/Like I wouldn't notice"
(from "The Strangers")
and
"These kids are foaming at the mouth/Psychotropic Capricorns" (from "The Neighbours")
and
"Laughing with a mouth of blood, from a little spill I took" (from "Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood")
and
"When the drink goes in, the devil comes out" (from "Oh My God")

And from A.C. Newman's "There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve" (the 1st line of the 3rd verse):
"And her eyes, they were a colour I can't remember/Which says more than the first two verses."

"I've had a little too much to think, and empty rooms tend to make me believe in you"
Listen- An Horse, those lyrics just get to me.

"Now the thought of you is burnt
on my body from the first time you did rewind that line from Hallelujah.
The original Leonard Cohen version."
Emmy the Great- First Love, brilliant.

"I fell back asleep some time later on
And I dreamed the perfect song
It held all the answers, like hands laid on

I woke halfway and scribbled it down
And in the morning what I wrote I read
It was hard to read at first but here's what it said

Eid ma clack shaw
Zupoven del ba
Mertepy ven seinur
Cofally ragdah"

Eid Ma Clack Shaw- Bill Callahan, I just had to put the whole thing, even if it is long, because those are just incredible.

quote:

"You've been humming in a daze forever / Praying for Pavement to get back together."
- The National, So Far Around The Bend

quote:

Originally posted by frontman17:
"I fell back asleep some time later on
And I dreamed the perfect song
It held all the answers, like hands laid on

I woke halfway and scribbled it down
And in the morning what I wrote I read
It was hard to read at first but here's what it said

Eid ma clack shaw
Zupoven del ba
Mertepy ven seinur
Cofally ragdah"

Eid Ma Clack Shaw- Bill Callahan, I just had to put the whole thing, even if it is long, because those are just incredible.

I love this too, and one of the reasons why is because this is so mysterious. Does this actually mean anything in code or some other language, or is it just the jibberish someone would write when they wake late at night?

quote:

"You've been humming in a daze forever / Praying for Pavement to get back together."
- The National, So Far Around The Bend

And so her prayer is answered.

More great lyrics:

Spring and Thompson on the first of May is horrible.
We hid in catacombs.
So now I'm sleeping next to mousetraps
In a bed of all our clothes
While I hope that she won't come home.
It was easier to lock the doors and kill the phones
Than to show my skin, because the hardest thing is never to repent for someone else,
It's letting people in.

Wake- The Antlers

Peter Hammill's Thin Air is full of great lyrics because, well, it's Peter Hammill.

From "Undone," maybe my favorite song off the album:

quote:

I mark the high days and the holidays
red-letter on the page;
fast-forward into memory,
prepare to be upstaged.
The envelopes I push against
so rapidly become
a wrap to keep me safe and warm
but soon enough I’ll be undone.

And if, for instance, I had spent a lifetime
in the service of cleanliness and godliness
I’d still be washed up now.

My history doesn’t make much sense,
no corner has been turned.
The future's brooding and immense
and everything I’ve learned
seems tiny in the scheme of things,
the reckoning’s begun -
I hold together what I can,
the stitches bound to come undone.

And, for example, if I’d spent a lifetime
in pursuit of miraculously common sense
I’d still feel stupid now.
I’m waiting on a final clue,
a final validation
of what I did, of what I hid,
of all I called my own.

Our high days and our holidays
are numbered, every one.
So quick the hours rush away
and everything we’ve left’s undone.

quote:

Originally posted by frontman17:
More great lyrics:

Spring and Thompson on the first of May is horrible.
We hid in catacombs.
So now I'm sleeping next to mousetraps
In a bed of all our clothes
While I hope that she won't come home.
It was easier to lock the doors and kill the phones
Than to show my skin, because the hardest thing is never to repent for someone else,
It's letting people in.

Wake- The Antlers

And then when it later says the line "I've got the keys, and I'm letting people in!" at the cresendo, it gives me goosebumps.

"So this one's for the critics, and their disappointed mothers."
- Susnet Rubdown, "Dragon's Lair."

Lot of great lines on that album, but this may be my favorite.

Love the opening verse/first chorus of Julian Casablancas' "Out Of The Blue."

"Somewhere along the way, my hopefulness turned to sadness,
Somewhere along the way, my sadness turned to bitterness,
Somewhere along the way, my bitterness turned to anger,
Somewhere along the way, my anger turned to vengeance.
And the ones that I made pay were never the ones who deserved it,
And the ones who deserved it, they'll never understand it,
Yes, I know I'm goin' to hell in a purple basket,
At least I'll be in another world while you're pissin' on my casket."

Man, we really have different tastes in lyrics, Bonzob.

Ha, I know, I've actually read a couple of reviews singling out those lyrics as awful, but I love them.

Casablancas isn't a good lyricist in the traditional sense, but I love the mix of old school swagger and doomed romanticism in his best stuff.

P.S. Were you just referring to the Casablancas lyrics, or all the lyrics I've posted in this thread? Because those other ones are gems, man.

Mostly the Casablancas, but some of the others too I guess. And don't worry, I'll find some of my favorite lyrics and post them here so you can read them and scoff at me too.

"Age of Man" by J. Tillman is definitely my favorite song lyrically this year. Here are the lyrics:

quote:

Holy visions
Barren spirit
Earthly comforts in the weeks after the end
Keeping watch for a highway that could steer
The endless brother from the gods that trespassed here
Countless images no more avenged or feared
In the Age of Man
In the Age of Man

Unwed covenant
Brazen promise
Diseased music sounds no longer in my ears
Birds will as they always have proclaimed
Sculpted stone left unattended rose away
The light in the cavern and the orchard is the same
In the Age of Man
In the Age of Man

Nameless purpose
Blessed Union
Godless children free to sing the untamed will
The stake in through the hands that stole his death
False bride revealed and stripped of unwon righteousness
No more inherent to those born upon the breast
In the Age of Man
In the Age of Man

A scarecrow lying facedown in the grass
The wooden beams resemble something from the past
Not long enough to make him hide from the day’s task
In the Age of Man
In the Age of Man

I actually didn't pay much attention to the lyrics in this song until my little brother told me how much he loved them. Then I paid attention and my appreciation of the song was increased immensely. It's not going to appeal to many Christians or really any religious person in general, but I think they're spot-on.

Those lyrics suck! Vomit!

J/k, those are actually pretty great. Haven't heard that album, is it good?