Lyrics suck...

I've now officially gotten to the point where everything that rhymes makes me laugh. I don't care what song it is, if there's a rhyme, I'm going to laugh at it. How silly, I think to myself.

I've also come to the point where I think that lyrics which don't rhyme are pretentious.

So now what? (I'm half serious).

Slackmaster 2000
 
time to panic, you're being manic, words don't always have to rhyme, or even have to fit in time, or have a meter to fit yer peter, or uplift yer dick with a magic trick, so what if things sound sappy, you might have written "don't worry, be happy"....gibs
 
It might not be the rhyme that's sounding so silly - it might be the tightness of the meter. Loosen the meter up, throw in extra syllables, throw in fewer syllables, and just make it all fit the rhythm. See what happens.

The other thing to try is write like Emeric. He's got this great big rhythm that he gets going, and the words are like free verse until after a few lines a rhyme crops up. Man, if I could manage that, I'd do it on one album at least. It reminds me of driving across Canada, and every once in a while, you come across a town. Same thing.
 
Dobro's reply also applies to non-rhyming lyrics, I know what you mean about them being pretentious. But one of my favorite bands, the Dismemberment Plan, usually uses non-rhyming vocals in the verses and a rhyming chorus. Their singer's trick seems to be that he treats the non-rhyming vocals very rhythmically, almost rapping them, and you don't even realize they don't rhyme until you read the lyrics. Tricky.
 
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