Two very different lines from very different songs recently caught my attention for the same reason –  the words sounded so good, so right.

One was from the Pre-Chorus of Adele’s emotional ‘Someone Like You’ (written by her and Dan Wilson):

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn’t stay away
I couldn’t fight it
I hoped you’d see my face
And that you’d be reminded
That for me
It isn’t over

I was struck by how beautifully the sounds of these words flowed with the melody and with each other.  The near-rhyme rhymes (uninvited / fight it / reminded) are so subtle, elegant, and well-placed that you almost don’t notice them.  Adele’s a master of the long melody line (this whole section’s one long line, melodically and lyrically) but she’s also a master of matching sounds and notes. And, of course, the words say what needs to be said leading up to the Chorus.

Another was Prince’s ‘1999’; one of the ultimate party songs.  Consider the first line of the Chorus:

Two thousand zero zero party over oops out of time
(‘Cause tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999)

‘Two thousand zero zero party over oops out of time‘.  How great is that?  The line doesn’t have too much on its mind (though it does say something and convey a mood)… but what the line says fits the song perfectly.  Mainly it just feels and sounds right.

A big reason why a great lyric is great is because of how it sounds with the melody.  You can look at a lyric on paper (or screen), or think about the words and be captivated or fascinated by the ideas and the pictures it evokes, but that in itself does not make a good lyric.  Its sound and its singability, is at least as important – maybe more so.

There are technical aspects of singability.  Do long notes have the right vowel sounds going with them?  Sometimes a long ‘eeeeee’ sound won’t fit the mood, where an ‘ooooh’ might sound appropriate – and be easier to sing.  Do the short, rhythmic sounds punch out like they need to (see ‘1999’)?

This is where good singers can have a real advantage as songwriters – sometimes they know which words, as they come out of their mouths, feel and sound good on which notes.  Those of us who are less experienced singers have to more consciously pay attention to this.

I remember when I was recording the lead vocal for one of my songs and I was having trouble getting a good take of the second Verse.  I’d gotten the first Verse without any fuss.  I was cursing my singing… when I realized I should also, maybe primarily, be cursing the songwriter (me).  The lyric said the right things, but the sounds in the second Verse just didn’t fit this melody nearly as well as did the first Verse’s sounds.  That was the main reason I was having more trouble singing it.  The singing problem was really a writing problem.  The best lyric writing eliminates this problem by making every sound match the melody in a comfortable, singable way.

So… it’s important for a songwriter to sing their lyrics… even if the songwriter isn’t a ‘singer’.  Only in singing is the ‘sonic truth’ about lyrics revealed.

By the way, this is also why one often thinks, or hears, the comment, ‘The lyrics of (pick a song) don’t mean anything, they’re nonsense, I don’t even know what they are… but I don’t care.  They sound great!’

I’m not recommending ignoring the content of lyrics – obviously meaning is critical and multi-layered.  But remember, the sounds of the words are themselves a big part of what gives the words the meaning they have for the listener, as well as having their own ‘meaning’… as sound… or, as it’s also called, music.

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