So /lit/,
Who are the best lyricists of 21st century?
kanye west
John S. Hall
Kendrick Lamar
>>7641472
Joanna Newsom
>>7641472
Stefan Burnett
but he's a 'meme' so that invalidates him i guess
>>7641472
L I T E R A T U R E
L I T E R A T U R E
L I T E R A T U R E
L I T E R A T U R E
L I T E R A T U R E
L I T E R A T U R E
>>7641472
tim harrington
astronautalis
brian fallon
conor oberst
tegan quin
frances quinlan
>>7641823
He isn't a good lyricist any way you cut it.
>>7641855
He is though.
Him being 'edgy' doesn't change that.
Gordon Lightfoot
>>7641788
Agreed.
That guy from Shearwater. I post his lyrics in favorite poetry threads and people fail to notice it is not literature.
Evan Weiss
'Embracing Facts'
How the hell could I have been so dumb?
As an outspoken man with a well sharpened tongue,
I sorta thought I'd start to change with age
but I've just stayed the same.
Call me crazy, but today I'm embracing facts:
a past full of mistakes which I can't take back.
It's a cryin' shame
That I'd drag this out just to pass the blame.
How the hell could I have been so weak?
A plush backseat flips my switch on to speak and says
"Your common sense will never pay the rent."
Harsh words from a path that I seldom choose.
I'll scream at the wall as you sing the blues
To the minor chords that you and I simply can't afford
>>7641919
Sounds like slam poetry.
>>7641925
if it was slam poetry it would have been ten times longer and Depression would have been the main character
Paul Valéry
From the wreck of the ark
to the fading day of our star
the light races
the light drags
the moon rises
the moon sags
over the rolling waves
and your hands on the balcony
as a spine
pricks the world
and the shudder, deep, is unheard,
but you feel it
oh my god
as the spindle
flies apart
turn your bow to the biggest wave,
but your angel’s on holiday
and that wave rises slowly
and breaks
'Gold Mine Gutted' by Bright Eyes
It was Don DeLillo, whiskey neat
And a blinking midnight clock
Speakers on a TV stand
Just a turntable to watch
And the smoke came out our mouths
On all those hooded sweatshirt walks
We were a stroke of luck
We were a gold mine, they gutted us
And from the sidelines you see me run
Until I'm out of breath
Living the good life, I left for dead
The sorrowful Midwest
Well, I did my best
To keep my head
It was grass stain jeans and incompletes
And a girl from class to touch
But you think about yourself too much
And you ruin who you love
Well all these claims at consciousness
My stray dog freedom
Let's have a nice clean cut
Like a bag we buy and divy up
And from the sidelines, I see you run
Until you're out of breath
And all those white lines that sped us up
We hurried to our death
Well, I lagged behind
So you got ahead
>>7641824
>Poetry is literature
>Lyrics aren't
>>7642098
>poetry
>something with actual depth
>lyrics
>MY GIRLFRIEND LEFT ME HOW STUPID COULD I BE TO BELIEVE THAT BITCH AND I STILL LOVE HER!
>>7641472
Chico Buarque in Brazil, and if portuguese were a more influent language, in the whole world. He is a great poet, even greater than Bob Dylan.
>>7642168
'I could have been a famous singer if I had someone else's voice, but failures always sounded better..'
if you've ever seen him perform drunk you'll know why his voice is so great
>>7641472
Stephin Merritt
The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing
But I, I love it when you read to me
And you, you can read me anything
The book of love has music in it
In fact, that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb
But I, I love it when you sing to me
And you, you can sing me anything
The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know
But I, I love it when you give me things
And you, you ought to give me wedding rings
I, I love it when you give me things
And you, you ought to give me wedding rings
>>7642157
LOL good kek my firend its like how all tragedy is just people moaning then dying! Good kek i agree totally nice good job
>>7642183
False equivalence.
>>7642189
Historically speaking all original poetics were dialogued into musical numbers or songs. To call lyricism not poetic is oversimplification and due just to your-albeit judicious- comparison with the present.
Tao Lin
Joanna Newsom and John Darnielle, maybe Stefan Burnett
>>7642218
Fairly certain I understand context. But you're saying that because lyrics today are shit that all lyrics today are also representative of said opinion. That's fallacious and an over-generalization.
>>7642235
Except it's not.
>>7642218
WUZ
KINGZ
>>7642253
>kek
>>7642163
nahh, dylan was a much more complete artist
>>7642218
I suppose you think music reached its artistic peak in the 60s? Maybe your favourite artists are Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones and you miss when music was artistry?
>>7642331
No, that's also pop music and modern lyricism you fallicious moron.
Pat the Bunny without a doubt
>>7641472
MF Doom has some of the best lyrics of any rapper this century.
>>7641472
Mark Kozelek
>>7641472
Lyrics in music don't really matter
>>7641472
These guys
Thom York
>>7642528
MAN IS THE ANIMAL
Why has no one said John Darnielle yet?The most remarkable thing about coming home to you
Is the feeling of being in motion again,
It's the most extraordinary thing in the world.
I have two big hands
And a heart pumping blood
And a 1967 Colt .45
With a busted safety catch.
The world shines
As I cross the Macon county line,
Going to Georgia.
The most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it's you
And that you are standing in the doorway
And you smile as you ease the gun from my hand
I am frozen with joy right where I stand.
The world throws its light underneath your hair.
40 miles from Atlanta, this is nowhere.
Going to Georgia
The world shines
As I cross the Macon county line,
Going to Georgia
>>7642528
very good
>>7642352
Best MC with no chain ya ever heard
>>7641788
This.
pj harvey
>all these faggots posting rappers
i don't think so, mate. rappers have no subtlety in their lyrics at all, it's as if they've just opened a thesaurus and selected a bunch words longer than four letters that happen to fit with whichever basic rhyme scheme they are using.
they use terrible cringe metaphors and similes that are just their for the sake of it.
the obvious answer:
leonard cohen
nick cave
bob dylan
and maybe ian curtis and lou reed
>>7642752
okay guy.
>>7642752
trying to pass judgement on an entire genre, containing more artists than you could ever hope to listen to, seems like a bit of a sweeping statement doesn't it? I mean, is your use of the pronoun 'they' honestly meant to refer to thousands and thousands of people?
>>7642752
Have you even listened to any rap beyond mainstream shit?
Richard Paul Astley, obviously.
Keith Buckley
Patrick Kindlon
Jacob Bannon
Michael Gira
>>7642759
>implying its bait
>>7642768
I've listened to multiple tens of thousands of records, that's thousands of hours of rap records and when I say "they" I mean every rap record I've listened to ranging from mainstream shit, to old school memphis shit, to noise-rap, to esoteric field-note style freestyles from the slums of a third world country. There has been maybe five times in all those thousands of hours where i've found something that was impressive.
Music is literally my job. What now, dickhead?
>>7642777
See above, i'm not saying it for the fuck of it. Rap as an art form has yet to see any "greats" of the genre. I'm talking masterful poets and musicians who happen to like the format of "rap" It will happen eventually, it hasn't happened yet.
>>7641819
This
>The lines are fading in my kingdom
>(though I have never known the way to border them in);
>so the muddy mouths of baboons and sows, and the grouse, and the horse, and the hen
>grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tidy pen.
>And the mail is late, and the great estates are not lit from within.
>The talk in town’s becoming downright sickening.
>>7642752
>maybe ian curtis
Definitely Ian Curtis, he was pretty patrician
>Atrocity Exhibition
JG Ballad reference
>Colony
Franz Kafka reference
Sufjan Stevens
Colin Meloy
John Darnielle
I'm just going to post him already, and we can all see the second best.
>>7643246
>21st century
>>7643279
>schizoid man
>>7642752
This man knows.
>>7642752
so only artists from more than 40 years ago count?
>>7643376
>Nick Cave
>more than 40 years ago
Go listen to your Bieber's songs, newfag.
>>7643392
Hope Bob Dylan make one last good album before he dies.
>>7643406
>he hasn't heard Christman in the Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8qE6WQmNus
Ezra Furman
Courtney Barnett
>>7643425
>Courtney Barnett
Okay, this is over the fucking line. While you guys please go back to /mu/? We all know you guys don't read and have never actually studied literature.
>>7643429
Good lyrics aren't the same as good poems. It's the way they sound with the music, and Courtney Barnett has some fucking great sounding lyrics.
For what it's worth I am studying literature at Uni. Though I know that's worth very little.
Sufjan Stevens, Mark Linkous, Jeff Magnum, Phil Elvrum
>>7643424
this was my jam in high school
ATTENTION
Anyone posting rappers should leave /lit/ now and never return.
