The Untitled doesn't have great lyrics. In fact, it completely loses it's message when it gets to "to the twilight". In The End is repetitive as shit, but gets the point across and doesn't turn into word candy Every version of Esaul has some atrocious lyrics and/ or lyrics that just don't make sense written for the sake of sounding cool. BECAUSE IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REST OF THE LYRICS. Big words, more words, doesn't matter. Mike used to write shit that didn't make sense but sounded dope. That doesn't connect with people, nor does it make a good song
Can you see? It is subjective. Everyone has an opinion on the same piece of music. What is deep for one may not make any sense to another.
Complexity of lyrics =/= better lyrics. Sometimes simplicity works, like in the final versions of the Hybrid Theory songs. I think the lyrics from the HT demos could be construed as gibberish to some.
What makes it deep though? What do you get out of these demo lyrics? If you want to write a song about how terribly treated you are, it's probably best that you don't start talking about random shit right in the middle of the song because it rhymes well or because you think you sound intelligent...which Mike has admitted to doing regarding early works such as these. A lot of people here really dig his old shit and couldn't tell me jack shit about wtf Mike is saying...Mike himself couldn't tell you the meaning of half the shit he's saying, which let's you know how deep his writing was.
Haha agree with Rocky, through i must say, sometimes a song's lyrics doesn't have to make sense(you get me?). Like sometimes the lyrics are just there to make a special feeling, and together with the instrumentals, create a special atmosphere. For example High Voltage, now to me, the lyrics on that song is very far out, spacey, almost psychedelic, but they work perfect for the song.(i could just never tell you what the song is about, but that is okay, sometimes it makes sense when it doesn't)
I think it's pretty obvious he's speaking about how he's better than you and that he knows what bullshit is out there. "I tried threats, but moved on to a promise I stomp shit with or without an accomplice" This is further emphasized in the reprise, the interview with the rapper whose name I can't remember. How everything is so watered down. Which is why I think that High Voltage was left out of the album, one, because it was a mainly rapped song, inconsistent with the style of the other songs in the album, and two, because it specifically spoke about the conditions LP was put under. To have Mike, who can write these fucking cool verses, be reduced to speaking about "Oh woe me, I'm so sad no-one gives a fuck about me" See: Dedicated. Stuff like Dedicated doesn't sell to the masses. Which average person wants to listen to a song about another's people suffering and struggle? About a homeless man? No, man, it's all me me me. "While emcees fight to see who could be the commonest", that's all right there. That's what the rapping scene spiraled down to. Fucking, booze, drugs and luxury cars. Or they pull an Airplanes or collabs with females to appeal to more people.
Lol. "Soon, the Aztec Moon will heat my room, heal my wounds" evokes much more stuff than "You, try to the get the best of me, go away", the fact that it's not as crystal clear and whiny what it means doesn't mean it's worse. On the contrary, Reanimation was made to give underground artists a bit of spotlight, instead of hoping to make a huge hit. Can you seriously envision any of harder the tracks being sung by a female? And that's, like, all of them.
Jean Grae released her first album that same year. What if she'd been on "Enth E Nd" instead of Motion Man? Or if Otep Shamaya had been the one snarling "blood is pouring" on "1stp Klosr"?
Honestly, my favorite track so far off of Living Things is Tinfoil. And I'm not trying to be a smartass or anything, I just really like it a lot. The chord changes give me fucking goosebumps. And I love the very reverbed tremolo guitar. Can't wait for a studio version.
Actually those lyrics were very deep and written with intelligence and meaning, you just don't understand the thought behind them. That's fine, but don't bash them because you are ignorant of what they are saying. You can't complain the lyrics are too vague and unintelligent, then complain as soon as they do get complicated ! Also not all of it was bullshit, that was just the way Chester started writing his lyrics if you check out Grey Daze. He has said in many interviews song writing was his way to say certain feelings while keep other things "his secret".
If you think he doesn't understand the lyrics, wouldn't that be an obligation to enlighten him? Wouldn't drawing all kinds of hidden meanings and inferences strengthen your argument? Because if you just say, "Oh, these are too DEEP for you," and leave it at that, it would make it look like you were talking out of your ass, correct?
You guys should listen to the album "By The Throat" by Eyedea & Abilities and analyze its lyrics and the way the lyrics work with the atmosphere of the song. I think then you will understand. If you don't wanna do that, just look at the lyrics closer. The aztec moon, for an example, is a greek goddess. Work from there...
Because most of the time (and I say it like that so I'm not mistakingly categorizing everyone on the planet, though someone will take it as such) when someone goes on about how they don't like something, it comes off as straight-up bitching without any fucking backbone what-so-ever.