Sunday, May 3, 2009

Why must songwriters be so depressing?

There are two songs right now that I am in love with. They are both love songs, in a sense. They are also both about highly dysfunctional relationships. They're both quite sad and disturbing when you listen to the lyrics.

I get much more involved in the melodies and rhythms and harmonies of songs than I do in the lyrics, so for a long time I didn't even realize how messed up these songs were.

It's just sad to me that these two stunningly beautiful songs are actually so depressing. In fact, I bet the majority of my favorite songs have bad or sad or false messages, as opposed to truthful or hopeful or uplifting ones. Like I said, I don't pay that much attention to lyrics, so I don't really have a problem with that. I'd be just as happy with most of my favorite songs if the lyrics were in another language, or in gibberish (see: Sigur Rós). It's just sad to me that these great artists seem to be so often tormented inside.

I wish these two love songs were sweet and uplifitng:

Ryan Adams – Come Pick Me Up

Antony and the Johnsons – Fistful of Love

2 comments:

adam paul said...

i'm with you man. i'd be just fine with having no idea what artists were saying 90% of the time.

in fact, once chris martin opens his mouth, i don't like coldplay anymore.

Emily said...

Come Pick Me Up by Ryan Adams is one of my all-time favorite songs. But yea, it's really depressing.