Porcupine Tree: Track titles and song lengths listed

Yeah, i completely understand where you are coming from, but i believe that there is more to those lyrics than what the eye can see. Because i usually write my own lyrics, even though sometimes i choose to write something simple, if you really study into it and concentrate, then there is something else behind the meanings of the words you see. That's what i saw alot in Porcupine Tree, when i read the lyrics to The Joke's On You i was like 'what was SW thinking?', then i REALLY read them and thought... amazing. But i guess that this is just a matter of opinion. I don't believe in good lyrics or bad lyrics, just the meaning that they could have to you.
 
Yeah, i mean thats the hard part about criticizing lyrics. I write music and i've attempted to write lyrics, but its just extremely difficult to put yourself out there like that. The line i posted about the xbox and my moms a bitch.. i know what the meaning behind that is... i guess its just different levels of poetic ability. It's kinda what makes Yeats or shakespeare more eloquent than you or i. Their way with words. If you like jonas' lyrics, thats great.. i just find them kinda weak in terms of poetic ability. THe same with sw. But you know, to each their own.
 
Yeah, you definetly have a fair point, 'good lyrics' in your criteria is requiring poetic ability, that's fair enough, and to some extent so is my criteria for 'good lyrics'. But because i write my lyrics also, it's sort of hard to weave images into words no matter how much i try, so i use simpler words, that is why i appreciate this style of writing, although it is not my favourite. I do prefer the more poetic styles.
 
I actually think that the lyricist for Counting Crows is fantastic. i dont know if you listen to them at all, but he's as poetic as you'll get for a modern rock lyricist.
 
i actually love stevens lyrics... the best lyrics i think are in stupid dream and lightbulb sun... he does not wrap the lyrics up in difficult words, he doesnt even always try to make it poetic... it's just straight out of his mind. i have spent hours just reading his lyrics

The letters pile up in the hallway
Junk mail and bills from the catalogues
And the neighbours have guessed 'cos I've cancelled the milk
And they don't hear your voice through the walls anymore

How is your life today ?

I was kissed on the cheek by a cold mouth
While the taxi was waiting like a getaway car
Each second seems like a lifetime
And the cat it's been staring at me all this time

How is your life today ?



If you fall asleep with me
You can dream and drowse
The miuntes turn to hours

We could climb a tree or two
And watch the sun go down
Upon our sleepy town

After all the time I spent with you
Summer went away
And we just weren't the same

It's just you and me alone
Not grown ups but not kids
You kissed me on the lips



So see how long I can last
You can pretend that I don't exist for you
And I can laugh about it now
But I hated every minute
I was waiting for your email
And each day that you forgot to call
Just made me feel so low
So low

Christmas 1998
I tried to call
I just couldn't wait
And your message was out of date
So I left my voice on your machine
But you did not respond
OK OK OK you've won
You make me feel so low
So low



i love these kind of cheesy lovesongs, they feel so...real somehow.

and you think that he is a whiny ego when he writes about his tough past...
i actually can relate to those lyrics, they feel very real to me.
 
So see how long I can last
You can pretend that I don't exist for you
And I can laugh about it now
But I hated every minute
I was waiting for your email
And each day that you forgot to call
Just made me feel so low
So low

Christmas 1998
I tried to call
I just couldn't wait
And your message was out of date
So I left my voice on your machine
But you did not respond
OK OK OK you've won
You make me feel so low
So low


That is the best break up song ever. I love all the rawness of the emotion here. It's like fuck it, this is how i REALLY feel. I absoloutely appreciate this song.
 
What's good about them? They're the kind of stuff you might scribble into a notebook in 7th grade. I like jonas' voice, but his lyrics are pretty terrible. I understand that english isnt his native language, so its harder to be functionally poetic, but those lyrics are just plain terrible if you ask me. This is in no way in defense of what steven wilson writes, because a lot of the time he's terrible as well. I'm just saying that those lyrics are just as bad. The reason i even brought it up is that i like katatonias music, but the lyrics i find terrible. Just like a lot of porcupine tree. If you happen to like that lyrical style, then so be it, but from my literary background... pretty bad stuff.

compare with xb0x is my god.
 
i actually love stevens lyrics... the best lyrics i think are in stupid dream and lightbulb sun... he does not wrap the lyrics up in difficult words, he doesnt even always try to make it poetic... it's just straight out of his mind. i have spent hours just reading his lyrics
exactly, and thats what i love about sw/pt, plain and simple yet the music is fucking mindblowing.
 
Ken, I'm not saying they're better. I'm saying they're just as bad. Anyway, I actually do like the lyrics to Feel so low and a bunch of other PT songs.. He's more hit or miss with my tastes.
 
So see how long I can last
You can pretend that I don't exist for you
And I can laugh about it now
But I hated every minute
I was waiting for your email
And each day that you forgot to call
Just made me feel so low
So low

Christmas 1998
I tried to call
I just couldn't wait
And your message was out of date
So I left my voice on your machine
But you did not respond
OK OK OK you've won
You make me feel so low
So low


That is the best break up song ever. I love all the rawness of the emotion here. It's like fuck it, this is how i REALLY feel. I absoloutely appreciate this song.

Amazing, that's the same song I post when I am saying that he's a horrible lyricist. That line about the email especially is so incredibly lame. If I wanted straightforward non-poetic non-musical complaining about getting dumped I'd read a livejournal, not listen to something allegedly musical. Good breakup lyrics are stuff like say, Jeff Buckley's "Lover You Should Have Come Over," not this. :p I can see why you like it it's just your reasons for liking it are pretty much the same as mine for thinking it sucks :D
 
Katatonia has a few cool lines- "Let the rich meet death" from Deliberation and "We used to be heroes, but everything has changed since then" from Evidence- but most of the other ones are just bizarre. And TGCD's cover is alright, but I like Blank Planet's better.
 
wanker: it's a lyric that stands out from the PT discography, my impression of it is that either you love it or hate it. It's a good think that people don't think the same and that there are no rules with music.
 
+100000000000. Boy is he an intimidating guy though :erk:

intimidating because he's so well read and rather intellectual? I was reading something on the web a few months ago about his lyrics and politics of ecstasy are about some guy who experimented with drugs, to reach a higher spiritual level, actually its here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary

I also like the lyrics of River Dragon, which is about the Chinese building the Yangtze river dam.

I prefer topical lyrics (in metal) to ones about mindless violence / satan etc