I will eschew a simple list and in favour provide examples with my top lyricists, in some vain hope that somebody will enjoy a certain lyric and subsequently discover a new favourite band.
1. Conor Oberst / Bright Eyes
This band appeals to the religious element of my soul as well as the part of me that is a big fucking baby. Conor often has too much to say in his songs and maybe doesn't know when to stop, but his hits are far more frequent than his misses:
You turn on a spindle.
You are so much looser now
But you’re not explaining how
You gained such new repose.
I touch the clasp of your locket
With its picture held,
Some secret you wouldn’t tell
But let it choke your neck.
and also
All across electric wire, it's a baited line
Yeah, the hook's in deep, boys, there's no more time!
So you can struggle in the water
Be too stubborn to die
Or you can just let go
And be lifted to the sky.
I couldn't possibly put all of his/their songs in here but nearly each song has some genius in it.
2. Beck
Beck is a lot more miss than hit as far as lyrics go, some of them are nonsense and are just listed imagery and copped phrases. The hits are hits, though:
I just found me a bottle of blues, some strange comfort for a soul to soothe
Ain't it hard, ain't it hard to want somebody who doesn't want you?
And I've been waiting for a year or a day,
Some strange weather must be blowing my way
'Cause I got no mind to go or to stay or be left behind
Holding hands with an impotent dream in a brothel of fake energy
Put a nickel in a graveyard machine, I get higher and lower
I get higher and lower like a tired soldier with nothing to shoot
And nowhere to lose this bottle of blues..
3. Willy Mason
This guy blew me away when I first heard 'Oxygen'. His first album is great, though I regrettably have not heard the follow up.
I wanna be better than oxygen
So you can breathe when you're drowning and weak in the knees
I wanna speak louder than Ritalin
For all the children who think that they've got a disease
I wanna be cooler than t.v.
For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be
We can be stronger than bombs
If you're singing along and you know that you really believe
We can be richer than industry
As long as we know that there's things that we don't really need
We can speak louder than ignorance
Cause we speak in silence every time our eyes meet.
4. The Minutemen
You all know why.
As I look over this beautiful land,
I can't help but realize that I am alone.
Why am I able to waste my energy?
To notice life being so beautiful?
What of the people who don't have what I ain't got?
Are they victims of my leisure?
To fail is to be a victim,
To be a victim of my choice.
Maybe partying will help.
5. M. Ward
No wonder Zooey Deschanel favours this poetic motherfucker over me.
I sailed a wild, wild sea
climbed up a tall, tall mountain
I met a old, old man
beneath a weeping willow tree
He said now if you got some questions
go and lay them at my feet
but my time here is brief
so you'll have to pick just three
And I said
What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
and how can a man like me remain in the light
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long
and then the sun went down
and he sang for me this song.
Honourable Mentions:
Belle and Sebastian
My Morning Jacket
Brian Wilson
Johnny Cash
Daniel Johnston
