wished lyrics'd never be better ... wish came true

[torethatbridgeout]

PW was out of the gate fantastic at lyrics ... the writing, the delivery, the works. My son was sick today, and I was thinking of the "pull ups on the toilet bowl" line from "If Only You Were Lonely," but that album just overflows (sorry) with great funny lyrics.

And he never really stopped. I'm not sure if he got any better ... he just stayed fantastic at it. Someone said the blues stuff made him pare down and his lyrics improved ... that might be. I'm wondering if anyone here hears some progression or evolution or just the constant greatness I hear.

[GtrPlyr]

One of the main differences, I find, between Paul’s early lyrics, and his later material, is that he seems to be focusing his writer’s eye externally more. In the days of the Mats, Paul’s lyrical focus seemed to be based solely, on him, and the band. Examples of this are on all the Mats albums: Color Me Impressed, I Don’t Know, Someone Take the Wheel, Talent Show, Bastards of Young, etc. The early lyrics had more of an “us against them” feel; they were infused with angst, and a feeling of being out of step with mankind. They were definitely more claustrophobic in there scope.

Paul seems to have turned a corner, on his last few albums. Where once, he would only write songs based around his, and the bands experiences, he now seems to want to expand his pallet. He seems to be more willing to be influenced by outside sources such as books. This has produced songs such as Crackle & Drag, which is more of a storyteller type song, rather than a personal experience song. The basis of his songwriting still seems to stem from personal experience. You still have the songs about the hardships of marriage, and relationships, to growing older, but between those he is broadening his songwriting, by trying on different hats.

I’m not suggesting that his songwriting is getting better. I still prefer his early work in general, but I think he’s realized the limitations of his old style. Settling down, and being somewhat happy, can have an interesting effect on a guys songwriting…

Usually you need some kind of strife to produce the most interesting art, so barring this, Paul has had to find new things to inspire his creativity.

[zook]

Well said Gee-tar. One of my favorite parts of Paul's writing is the layers - not only hearing one thing at first listen and another later - but also the double meanings, the clever wordplay, the emotions that sometime offset the words. Even the most simple songs are usually much more complicated than they seem.

I think that has always been there from the early days but definitely evolved as he got older and wiser. It makes listening to his records more interesting and why they never seem old or stale. I remember when the Strokes first came out and I listened to the first album. I liked it and thought it was a nice change from the crap on the radio at the time but the songs never stuck with me. It was like musically cotton candy and I never feel remotely close to that with PW songs.

[torethatbridgeout]

The wordplay seems to me more than a means to an end. It's philosophically pro-fun, pro-thinking, pro-questioning. Whatever he's singing about, that comes through, and for me, that's what he's really singing about. That's what has seemed constant, whatever the topic or stage of life.