YES

In the latest issue of The Believer, Alan Bishop writes: "Lyrics are not an important thing to me. In fact, it can be a distraction. If I knew the language enough to know it was a horrible love song with stupid lyrics...then it would be much more of a turnoff then [sic!] if it would allow me to interpret from the expressive capabilities of the vocalizing or of the sound itself..."

Though this generally goes against the founding principles of LG music analysis---lately I've felt the same. It's been a long time since I've posted, and I have to admit I've been milling over the same few songs and how to frame them, and have been stuck by the irrelevance of said songs to my current, sterile and frustrated existence: heartbreak, self-righteous departure, crazed love--anything involving emotional response that isn't related to having your mom wake you up in the morning (self-pity, irrational anger), or feeling like a frustrated child at work (I'm wearing a baseball cap at one job)--honestly, and regrettably, only relate in memory, or in the future.

SO--why I'm feeling these songs: One a karaoke smashing success from about three weeks ago, and a popular CVS background tune, the other, this summer's greatest pseudo-rave* euro-blonde hit, get to me not because what they're saying particularly relates to what's going on in my life, or a future LG fantasy**, but because of how they sound. As Bishop writes about listening to Thai music: "I don't understand exactly what's going on in the song. I can read into my own way of formulating what it means to me."

So let's try.



Ok, so the lyrics in this one get to me a little ("if you're trying to hurt me/ you're doing quite well, my dear," gently delivered before the bridge of orchestral, Gabor Csupo/Rugrats-like piano)--but what I like most about it is the way it's got an almost celebratory, "keep on goin" sound to it, while Annie sings about being hurt in the worst, most visceral kind of way: walking on BROKEN GLASS. But she chants it, croons to an upbeat tempo, in a way perhaps only aged divas can: like Diana Ross, Mariah Carey (if she weren't in full swing of attempting to reconstruct herself as a 20-year old) and hard-asses like Stevie Nicks (even when she was a 20-year old).

(This isn't the real video--the original fits perfectly with the theme (R & J perhaps the perfect antithesis to the aged love scenario, but captivating! nonetheless): Annie Lennox as an old queen, enraged over an ex-lover's new fresh-faced love.)



The second: September's "Cry for You," the only good thing on pop radio this summer (Lollipop got old quickly, though the shout out "Cah-leen, I can make it juicy fo' ya" is still good)--when she cries out at the chorus: "You'll never see me again," I feel you could almost guess what she was saying in any language. The rest of the lyrics aren't too prolific ("forever and ever, life is now or never/ forever never comes around"--mmm), and her tiny gyrating frame in an enormous vinyl hoodie isn't as appealing as Annie's period piece costuming. But still, I like it, and I think the key is taking her love gusto as is, as a sound, and forgiving the un-translatable trespasses of transatlantic, blonde pop. No?


*I'm into a future discussion of these kinds of songs on the radio. No one ever knows who they're by; often DJs don't even bother to announce who they're sung by, since they're so clearly both probably one-hit wonders, and also just used as an interlude between excessively edited Lil' Wayne and under-edited (meaning, GO AWAY) pop punk. I think they're great for driving, though.

**Meaning, songs you listen to WISHING it were you. This, for example. Music video applies here, too, OBV.