Since lyrics have come up in the Best of 2007 Albums discussion, I thought this might be a good topic, though it will no doubt veer into the realm of literary criticism rather than music. I'll start it off by asking:

How important are lyrics to your enjoyment and judgment of music?

For me, lyrics can make the difference between what I deem to be a good or bad song or album. I can abide by cretinous, banal or puerile lyrics if the music matches the lyrics, is Dionysian (in Nietzsche's sense), or accomplished enough to overcome the lousy words. With the exception of small doses of jazz and "post-rock," I don't listen to much purely instrumental music, primarily because I prefer the humanizing effect of a voice - if only as an instrument. When that voice delivers lyrics that are literate, original, intellectually layered, emotionally complicated, unsentimental and/or offer a fresh perspective of the quotidian world, so much the better. In my "reading," these are a few examples of albums with the best (as in literate and at least 1-2 of the other above terms) lyrics from 2007:
- The National, Boxer
- Josh Ritter, The Historical Conquests
- John Doe, A Year in the Wilderness
- The New Pornographers, Challengers

In each case, the music is also good (imo) and the lyrics elevate my enjoyment and attention to the songs.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: outis,

I generally prefer songs with some vocals, even just samples, because I feel it makes songs more interesting.

But I don't honestly care what they're saying, unless it's painfully bad. I don't know the lyrics to a lot of songs that I absolutely love, because it just doesn't matter to me. What matters is how it sounds.

Occasionally, a specific line might catch my attention. Sometimes I'll really try to think about what a song is about and I may enjoy the song more when I do, but it's about the sound to me.

Oh dear god outis!

'Dionysian', 'qoutidian'

I can see I am going to have to bring all my post-graduate literature and linguistics learnin's to the table ha ha.

A monster has been birthed. Where's kendo when I need him?

I gotta go to bed. Its getting on for 2am. But i will be back to talk trash and spit all over Boxer with my hateful, trollish, superior tone.

later gator

For me lyrics are as important (in some cases even more important) than the music itself. The folk genre is a good example of this. There certainly is a lot of acoustic guitar strumming and general sameness, but the lyrics of artists like The Mountain Goats are what makes the music that they make stand out.

The only lyrics that I have never been able to get into much have been rap lyrics. I think I just struggle to relate to them, with my Caucasian, middle-class upbringing. I really wish I could develop a greater appreciation of the genre because I sense it may be the most important genre of my generation. But, so far, no luck.

You could have just posed these questions and comments here, here, here, here, here. You pick.