This is a poll to accompany Killer Whale Tank's thread: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://forum.hipbase.com/viewtopic.php?t=3511">http://forum.hipbase.com/viewtopic.php?t=3511</a><!-- m -->.
Please remember to vote for your favourite album based on lyrics alone. Do not consider the music, melody, production, etc.
To quote Killer Whale Tank, use the song writing test: "can you imagine a given song working when played without backing, just vocal and acoustic guitar?"
You beat me to the poll...I was working on it when I saw this. Thanks for the effort, and for the record I vote for Road Apples because they're no other album where Gord's vocals carry the literate poetry of his lyrics so well, at least not until IBE...
I know you said not to considr vocals, but I can't ignore that on Road Apples, Gord's lyrics are both brilliant and perfectly melding with every song.
I voted Phantom Power, the best lyrics IMO...
(I have a response about it in the other thread that I don't want to re-type)
Where's all the M@W support now?
Dont you worry m@w support is there
I can't choose....I mean, early in their career it was stories..and now it's...well who knows what it is...
Thanks for the poll! Nice to know that my technical uselessness will be overcome by the help of others :lol:
It's a tough question, in a way. The only Hip CDs that lack great lyrics are M@W and, maybe, IVL. There might be signs of the rot creeping in on PP---the lyrics to 'Fireworks' and 'Chagrin Falls,' for instance, seem kinda unfocused to me---but I wouldn't want to go to the wall defending that.
I pick D4N because of 'Terrarium,' 'Nautical,' and 'Scared,' mainly. all three of which pass my little 'test' with flying colours. :thumb:
Man, what a difficult choice that was.
I voted IVL just because songs like Leave and The Dark Canuck resonate with me the most right now; but i can easily see going with D4N or PP or IBE.
Wow, nobody chose the lyrics for Up To Here? Obviously I didn't either, but I figured somebody might like Another Midnight, Opiated, When the Weight Comes Down, Trickle Down, etc. enough to make it to the top of the list...
Overall, what do you guys think of the lyrics on that album? In keeping with the more folksy feel of the record, I think they represent a unique chapter in Gord's creativity...
the lyrics on UTH are a lot more down to earth, and not as "out there" for the most part, all still really good lyrics but i don't think they can even really be compared to anything post FC.
if you want to talk about lyrics though, Coke Machine Glow is where it's at, pure poetic brilliance.
UTH has great lyrics. NOIS speaks for itself, of course; it's still their masterpiece. Downie as 'storyteller' was pretty much fully developed at that point...and it's cool the way he took the slightly surreal imagery of songs like 'The Weight' and 'Opiated' and turned them into something less linear, more fragmentary and allusive, as he evolved.
I think my favourite lyric on the CD is the middle bit of 'I'll believe in you' when he says:
How do I explain this? How do I put it into words?
It's one thing or another but it's neither this nor that
Actually it's a collection of things
She said 'that's it! That's it! Get OooouUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTT!!!'
Cracks me up every time. I just wish the closing line of that song were 'he said 'don't read too much into the fact that I'm lying.' That would be funnier than the extant lyric. Oh, well. It's not a song worth losing much sleep over anyway.
Sorry, rambling post :roll:
No rambling, it was thought provoking...reminded me of many songs by many artists that have perfect closing lines but keep going nonetheless. You know how it is...with a verse or a chorus still to come in a song, you hear a line that would have been just perfect as a closer but then i keeps going and you it had stopped there. I've always wondered if the artists themselves listen to it afterwards and think they should have changed the lines around so they still got to say everything they want and have a better closing line...