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I’ve been thinking about the musical choices that bands/musicians/record producers make when mixing a track, and realized that there is whole subgenre of music that could be defined by the complete unintelligibility of the lyrics. Whether the choice to distort or smear over the lyrics was made to heighten the caché of the music (possible examples = My Bloody Valentine, New Order) or to cover up really stupid writing (see My Bloody Valentine, New Order) it can grant an instant point of discussion and, my thesis, make the listening experience even more enjoyable. As someone whose enjoyment of REM is in inverse proportion to the intelligibility of their lyrics, I would tenderly propose that some songs are made better by the obfuscation of the words. Some examples for me include Cocteau Twins, Les Georges Leningrad, later Talk Talk, Liquid Liquid, some Deerhunter, and plenty on the 4AD label. And yours? Think of it as musical Mumblecore.
Way to go, ladymisskirroyale. Welcome to The Main Stage!
David Thomas of Pere Ubu always makes a big point that rock ‘n roll lyrics are not supposed to be easily understood. I get what he means, but if the lyrics are any good I have no problem hearing them. Pere Ubu’s lyrics, for instance, are pretty cool. On the other hand, there are plenty of garage band and power pop lyrics I wish I couldn’t make out.
I don’t think Elton John tried to hide what he was singing, but I’m always thankful that I can’t make out what he’s singing whenever I hear the hits from my childhood. The lyrics are usually pretty bad when I do make them out. I also have a lot of trouble understanding David Bowie, but sometimes his lyrics are worth making out.
Liquid Liquid was on 99 Records at first, right? They quickly made me think of ESG and Factory Records’ A Certain Ratio, two bands that I always think profit from having unintelligible lyrics. I’m almost positive that the lyrics would not mean a thing to me if I read them, and because these bands don’t have technically strong vocalists it’s better that their voices act as instruments/coloring and stay out of the way of the music.
Hey ladymiss. Welcome to the Main Stage! I’m totally and fully with you on the inverse-lyric-intellible-REM scale. Part of the initial appeal of Michael Stipe, for me, was his shyness, insecurity and mumbling. At the time it was a bold counter to the David Lee Roths and Johny Rottens of the day. Then he had to go and get confident and become an irritating dickhead.
I struggle with lyrics anyway. I don’t know if I’m just deficient in that area or if I’m just too absorbed in the music or what but when I can make them out I’m often let down.
Some bands inspire me to research the lyrics and others I’m fine with just letting them remain unintelligible.
When Jello Biafra hits top gear I struggle to understand him but when I do I’m usually glad I made the effort.
Eleventh Dream Day, a band I adore, could falls in and out of Mumblecore. I can decipher enough to think “cool!” but most is pops and buzzes to me Ringo. The first track on Beet goes “blah blah blah like the MC5 way past midnight blah blah blah pass the bottle see you later yeah! blah blah blah” And I’m completely fine with that and have never felt the need to research the lyrics.
I don’t know if I’d label Talk Talk’s lyrics as “bad” per se, so much as abstract. But still, I think the point is valid, that the voice is just another instrument and that sometimes words are just something for the voice to say, rather than a message or image that wants to be at the forefront of the song.
Funny enough, those Talk Talk lyrics are all printed with the album, though the writing is difficult to decipher – and I once heard an interview with Mark Hollis where he stated that reading the lyrics while playing the music was a horrible way to listen to an album.
Synchronously… I was sent this link to this very, um, odd interview with Brian Eno, and at one point he talks about the sounds of words taking precedence over their meaning… But mostly, I’m just using this an an excuse to post this link.
http://thequietus.com/articles/04339-brian-eno-interview-chrissie-hynde-nme-here-come-the-warm-jets
I think Kraftwerk is a good example of this type of music. They use lyrics, but you either can’t understand most of them (The Man Machine) or they just repeat them over and over (Tour de France, Autobahn).
I would also throw Son Volt into the mix to a certain extent, sort of in the REM vein. Songs like Drown and Route off the first album don’t make a lot of sense when you are singing along, but I sure love that debut disc.
Greatest rock and roll album in the history of the known universe “Exile On Main Street” features mostly unintelligible lyrics.
Funny you should mention Exile. I’ve been working on a review of the reissue and I can’t help but feel a little cheated by not being able to hear the lyrics a little better. The Stones often have cool lyrics. I like hearing Jagger deliver them.
Nirvana is pretty obvious.
Also, anything Ozzy Osbourne sings, although he is certainly more intelligible as a singer than a speaker.
Nirvana’s unintelligibility is just right. Their best songs are always sinister and mysterious. They may not have been as good if I knew what they were singing. I’m sure some real fans have figured out the lyrics and know.
So did “Cavern” become better when it was transformed into “White Lines?”
Thanks for all the interesting comments and observations, dear readers.
Cherguevara – love the “Cavern” to “White Lines” comment. I prefer the “Cavern” version, but as Sammymaudlin noted, some lyrics inspire and some don’t. In both of those renditions, the beat and bass are most memorable to me. And I think Talk Talk does a nice balancing act of lyrics (profound? listenable? blather?) – we own much Talk Talk at Chez Royale – you could call our home the Church of Talk Talk.
Nirvana is a great addition. One of my colleagues reminded me that Weird Al did a great send up of Nirvana’s mumblecore status in his video, “Smells Like Nirvana.”
At lunch today, we had a “discuss amongst yourselves” moment, and one of my colleagues mentioned that this importance of lyrics intelligibility topic is also a bit like comparing representational art to abstract or expressionistic art: do you want the lyrics to really be the focus and carry the strength of the song (Dylan?) or are they more important for their phonemic contribution (Cocteau Twins, Laurie Anderson?)? I liked the analogy.
And cherguevara, that Eno interview is the bomb (covered in marabou feathers)!
uh yeah…that Eno interview is a real corker!
I’m not sure about using New Order as an example. I could always hear their lyrics just fine and they sure are dumb. Seems like Bernard never cared enough about the words to become suicidally despondent … which is a good thing.
I think that lower class Irish/English slur thing done by Johnny Rotten and Liam Gallagher gets the menace across even when you can’t understand the words.
And that was some Eno interview. How did the authorities get Townshend and not Eno?