submissions
| Third Eye Blind – Why Can't You Be Lyrics
| 14 years ago
|
If you like this, you'll adore "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something, the albatross whose ironic lyrics have aged at least a bit better than these will. "Like JD Salinger / Why do I challenge her" alone makes me want to take Mr. Jenkins out behind the woodshed and give him a stern talking to.
Yes, I know that was the point. Doesn't make it any more excusable. |
submissions
| Eminem – My Mom Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
|
I know what you mean, beautifulbreakdown. If one accepts that he's in recovery and serious about practicing the steps (as the opening track would imply), these lyrics can't be taken at face value. At the same time, whatever irony he might intend is buried pretty deep, given the amount of vitriol directed toward an actual real-life person. |
submissions
| VNV Nation – Illusion Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
Amazing interview, HorsesMouth. Two-year-belated thanks.
Sophie Lancaster deserved so much better than the hate that took her life. I can't listen to this song without crying my guts out...but somehow hoping that...someday... |
submissions
| Vienna Teng – Stray Italian Greyhound Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
Obama, really? Dammit, Vienna, don't you go getting all political on me.
Just kidding. Her politics and mine are well enough aligned, and I appreciate this song even more now that I know it's not "just" an Imogen Heap-style ode to being messed up by an unanticipated romance.
You first three commenters have said it well enough, and I agree with pirateb that this is the "Harbor" of the new album. I can't stop listening. |
submissions
| Blue October – Weight of the World Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
I'm blown away by what they did (with a little help from Steve Lillywhite) with the album release of this song. Some will call it over the top, and while I can respect that opinion, I can't concur.
Flat-out spectacular. |
submissions
| Ani DiFranco – The Million You Never Made Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
aemitt: yeah, because Suzanne Vega is all about the wealth and has no dignity. Whatever. Listen to "Songs in Red and Gray" and get back to me on that.
If you're right, and Ani's going after her fellow artists as well as the labels on this one, I would have to think less of her. I don't think she is, though. Got evidence? |
submissions
| A-Ha – The Sun Always Shines on TV Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
How good is this song? I'll tell you: it's not only better than "Take on Me," which isn't actually that hard to achieve, but also better than "Manhattan Skyline" and "Stay on These Roads," which is.
A mostly lost classic that no fan of '80s synth should be without. |
submissions
| Death Cab for Cutie – Bixby Canyon Bridge Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
|
Good God, does Gibbard know how to bring the (hopefully cathartic) hurt or what? The only downside of opening an album in this brilliant a fashion is that the rest of the album stands very little chance of living up to it. Though, "Grapevine Fires" comes very close. |
submissions
| Ani DiFranco – Self Evident Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
While I'm a fan of Ani DiFranco in general, this song has never held up to scrutiny, and it only gets worse with the passing of the years. It's a ridiculously reckless relic of propagandistic poetic pretension. (Hey, a lot of us can do alliteration in about ten seconds, but we don't all feel the need to record it and pass it off as art.)
"3000 some poems disguised as people / on an almost too perfect day / should be more than pawns / in some asshole's passion play" is her brave conclusion -- which sounds great until you realize that the assholes in question, according to her, are our government. Not the assholes who actually, you know, crashed the planes into the buildings. Not once in the course of these rambling, stream-of-semiconsciousness pearls of wisdom are the terrorists themselves held accountable for their actions. In the world according to the Ani who narrates this particular song, the real problems are that (a) we use too much oil, (b) our intelligence agencies knew all along that 9/11 was about to happen and covered it up, (c) GWB stole the election, and (d) blah blah blah. Oh, and then there's (e) abortion and (f) capital punishment, and (g) more blah blah blah.
Has there ever been another political song on any side of the political spectrum that was as incoherent or as self-righteous or as self-indulgent as "Self Evident?" Even Sting and Toby Keith are sitting there going, "Wow, at least I didn't write *that*." |
submissions
| Shiny Toy Guns – When Did This Storm Begin? (feat. Binary Finary) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
Brilliant song. It's left ambiguous as to which drugs are involved, and whether or not there's an incestuous aspect to the physical abuse (which would REALLY suck), but it's not a happy picture of childhood no matter how you slice it.
It is, however, a cathartic statement of personal defiance and strength. You don't have to have lived it to feel it, and it doesn't hurt that it sounds amazing. |
submissions
| Depeche Mode – Never Let Me Down Again Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
|
I thought originally, when this song was released during my adolescence, that it was sung by a codependent lover. These days, the drug references are more glaringly obvious. There are very few songs that can be taken either way, not to mention still sounding this good. |
submissions
| Shiny Toy Guns – Ricochet! Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
|
I am that much better for now knowing the word "mesocyclone"...and I suspect that I'll be better yet (or at least a bit giddier) when I pick up the new album on Election Day. This should be fun. STG rule. |
submissions
| The Blue Nile – From a Late Night Train Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
forever's comment pretty much sums it up, yes?
This song was there for me during some rough nights as a college freshman, 18 years ago, so I thought I'd drop in on it. Nice to see that it's loved by others as well.
Nobody else sounds like the Blue Nile. Nobody else possibly could. |
submissions
| Jawbox – Iodine Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
|
Keeps coming back. It reminds me of Jawbreaker and, I hate to say it, the better instincts of Eve 6 ("Showerhead" especially). Granted, it makes less sense than either of those, and it shouldn't be missed. |
submissions
| Snow Patrol – Headlights On Dark Roads Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
Great song. I'm tending to lean away from the suicide interpretation, though just in case, here's the quote from "Annie Hall" that would apply:
"Can I confess something? I tell you this because, as an artist, I think you'll understand. Sometimes when I'm driving on the road at night, I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The flames rising out of the flowing gasoline."
Jawbreaker sampled most of this dialog in "Jet Black," a rather terrific (IMHO) song from their final album "Dear You."
This song does seem more positive than that one, and I'm not convinced that it's going in the same direction. I like the idea that it's about two people who (figuratively) crash into each other and discover that, while they may not have escaped their fear, at least are not alone in it. |
submissions
| Sudsonbleeker – Blue October - Foiled Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
Strongly agreed, and thanks for writing this, Mike. While the singles deservedly brought the most new fans to this album, funny story: I discovered Blue October by searching on Imogen Heap, another favorite artist who chimes in on "Congratulations." Had to immediately buy all their albums and fall in love with them, just as I did with hers.
The best news is that "Foiled" is Blue October's strongest album yet, just as "Speak For Yourself" is Imogen's. Truly, we are blessed. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Why Not Smile? Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
Feels very much like a sequel to "Let Me In," Stipe's reflection in the wake of Kurt Cobain's death (and arguably the most brilliant song on "Monster").
This month, we lost another very good person, David Foster Wallace, to suicide, and it truly sucks. I wish this song could have been there for him. |
submissions
| Everclear – Hater Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
|
Let's face it: Art has written pretty much this same song approximately three dozen times by this point, but at least this time it's got MORE COWBELL!!!1! |
submissions
| Tori Amos – I Can't See New York Lyrics
| 15 years ago
|
This one stays with you. It's probably got to be on any list of Tori's ten best songs, which list is getting crowded indeed.
I'm still not entirely clear on what it means, even as I appreciate the insights here, but I'm used to that with Tori. My own interpretation is that it's about the panic of imminent death, whether from plane crash or overdose or whatever.
The "warm lips" might apply to the Christian God (or his son); the "hunting ground" might be either of their messages as commonly (mis?)interpreted, or simply an acceptance of the inevitable.
So says the agnostic who occasionally wonders what will be going through his own mind when he's seconds from the end. Our consciousness exists, for as long as we've ever known, and suddenly we're...eternal? Or not at all? How exactly does one come to grips with that? Most likely we'll be casting about, with loved ones and memories and theology and whatnot in something of a jumble.
I mean, unless we've been Saved. Those folks have it made. |
submissions
| The Cure – The Kiss Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
At first, you're like...wait, this song has lyrics?
And then you're like...well, this is going to be an interesting album.
All hail the classics, of which this is easily one. |
submissions
| Foo Fighters – Everlong Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
It's been by privilege as a drummer to jam on this remarkably wonderful song a few times over the years.
Not that I think I ever got all of those fills 100% right on any given attempt, but I tried. Oh, how I tried. |
submissions
| Peter Gabriel – Darkness Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
Now THAT'S how you open an album. Whatever might have been ambiguous in the lyrics is cast into focus by the arrangement, which turns on a dime between industrial dissonance and exquisite tenderness. The rest of the album continues to play with this tension, both musically and lyrically, and then "Signal To Noise" brings it all full circle.
The man is a genius. There can no longer be the slightest question. |
submissions
| Britney Spears – Piece Of Me Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
Still wish she'd written the song herself, because it would have been a bit more authentic that way -- but in the absence of songwriting talent on her part, her producers at least had the good sense to turn to the Swedes.
And the result is, I must admit, downright perfect "screw you" pop, right up there with Pink's "U & Ur Hand" and Kelly Clarkson's finest moments. |
submissions
| Tom Petty – Insider Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Beautiful, timeless, and more than a bit wrenching...possibly even a bit too much of the latter to ever be a chart hit (though I do like the sentiment, Muddy). It clearly belongs in the Tom Petty Top Ten, which by now is fairly competitive territory. |
submissions
| Tom Petty – Insider Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Beautiful, timeless, and more than a bit wrenching...possibly even a bit too much of the latter to ever be a chart hit (though I do like the sentiment, Muddy). It clearly belongs in the Tom Petty Top Ten, which by now is fairly competitive territory. |
submissions
| The Call – The Walls Came Down Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
EIGHTIES! YES!
"I don't think there are any Russians / And there ain't no yanks / Just corporate criminals / Playin' with tanks" was darkly funny back then. It's arguably even more darkly funny today. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Pancake Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
Great comments here so far, and I don't have a lot more to add, except that "Like a flag / On a popstar / On a Benzodiazapine" makes me laugh every time. One of Tori's most joyously nasty songs, locked and loaded against any religion that claims to offer salvation even as it discriminates out of the other side of its mouth.
"You give me yours / I'll give you mine / cause I can look your God / right in the eye"? What, Tori, oblique? Sometimes, but not here. Damn she's fun to listen to. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Pancake Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
Great comments here so far, and I don't have a lot more to add, except that "Like a flag / On a popstar / On a Benzodiazapine" makes me laugh every time. One of Tori's most joyously nasty songs, locked and loaded against any religion that claims to offer salvation even as it discriminates out of the other side of its mouth.
"You give me yours / I'll give you mine / cause I can look your God / right in the eye"? What, Tori, oblique? Sometimes, but not here. Damn she's fun to listen to. |
submissions
| Dan Bern – God Said No Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Whether you're atheist or devout or somewhere in between: if this song does not make you sob at least once, you arguably haven't heard it. Best religious/folk meditation since Cohen's "Hallelujah" and its ten zillion well-justified covers. |
submissions
| Custom – Like You Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Years later, it still holds up. Immaculate, intricate production, great drumming, and that lyric that MistaTwista rightly highights: what's not to like here? |
submissions
| Miley Cyrus – See You Again Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
To paraphrase Joan Jett, I hate myself for loving this. (And yes, Corey Hart should probably sue.)
If this is what it is going to take for me to be assimilated by our new tween-driven corporate overlords...well played. They win this round. |
submissions
| Against Me! – Thrash Unreal Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
A year and a half after Blue October's "Hate Me," along came another terrific song that dared to address the subject of addiction in stark terms.
It strikes me as a love song to the lost, and a hope for her return. |
submissions
| Seabound – Poisonous Friend Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Equal parts catchy and creepy = great dark-synth moment. It's up to you how literally you want to take it, which is definitely part of the fun. |
submissions
| Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
One of the great gay anthems, right up there with Erasure's "Hideaway" and Pet Shop Boys' "A Red Letter Day" and...okay, so what I would know, as a straight boy?
What I do know is that my state's Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage today, and while there's still much to be hashed out, the world just became a slightly better place. Keep the faith, y'all. |
submissions
| Bruce Springsteen – Secret Garden Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
With you, FullDevilSoccer. While I accept the prostitution angle, I can't quite accept that that's all the Boss meant for us to take out of it.
As I see it, this is simply about intimacy and the difficulty that it poses. She has a world that she has every reason to believe that the singer is going to tromp all over, should she truly let him in. The singer, meanwhile, has every reason to think that she's not one to talk. Both are right, and both are wrong, and an astonishing song is the result.
I normally look to Peter Gabriel or Tori Amos for stuff this good. I'm going out on a limb and calling it his best since "Atlantic City." |
submissions
| Chumbawamba – The Good Ship Lifestyle Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Thunderbolt and (king nothing2, even if his quotes are a bit all over the place) strike me as mostly right. This song is aimed as a dagger to the hearts of those of us whose nature leads us to mistake detachment for boldness, and it draws serious blood. It's far harder to be engaged in the problems of the world than to fall into a pattern of guiltless hedonism, but at the end of the day, "TV dinners for one at the captain's table" probably aren't going to satisfy. |
submissions
| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Three albums in, Imogen Heap officially cemented her goddess status, right next to Tori Amos and...hrm, can't think of anyone else in the same league at the moment. This is an amazing song, but also just the beginning. Pick up _Speak For Yourself_ and, if you're anything like me, salivate over the prospect of its IMMInent followup. |
submissions
| Pink – U + Ur Hand Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
Funny as all hell. It's going on my "Tooth Decay" summer mix, somewhere between Kelly Clarkson and Shiny Toy Guns.
Seems like some of the guys commenting here might want to lighten up. If your point is simply, "Chicks have been known to hurt my feelings at bars by trying to avoid me"...well, could be them, but could be you as well, right? And let's not forget that the storyline in this song started with Inappropriate Touching, not just "following round."
It's a fun song with a simple message for us guys: Don't Be an Asshole and You'll Be Fine and Probably Even Stand a Better Chance of Getting Laid.
As for kyleisgreat's comment: "All you women may feel empowered after listening to this song and feel that pink is figthing for your rights but really she is just doing it for the dollar and you bought it(both literally and figuratively)":
That's a cynical enough view. I respect cynicism and thought briefly about abandoning pop music on that basis, but I've mostly concluded that life's just too short. I leave you to your enjoyment of artists for whom money is not an issue. |
submissions
| Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
In the space of four minutes flat, Wheatus laid waste to most of Weezer's catalog with this one. It's perhaps rivaled only by Meryn Cadell's hilarious "The Sweater" in the "wasn't high-school infatuation fun and let's thank God it's now behind us" sense. |
submissions
| Peter Gabriel – The Book of Love (Magnetic Fields cover) Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
One can only infer that sillybunny is reading from the dumber pages that Gabriel is talking about, and reposting them here for our benefit. You know, it's meta. Stupid and annoying also, but hey, it's not as though I've never posted while drunk.
It's a good song, no? |
submissions
| Ani DiFranco – Not a Pretty Girl Lyrics
| 16 years ago
|
|
Bravo, maryannanoel. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to get it burned into my skin, but then, I'm male and all, so it'd be pretty much stating the obvious. |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.
