I've noticed I tend to like songs with very contemplative lyrics. They efficiently and artfully pack a lot of emotion and meaning in to very tight and neat spaces, and I find that quality to really show the most skill of any musician.

I asked some of my friends around, and the big ones they mentioned were Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (Seems kinda basic to me as far as deep meanings go.) and System of a Down's "Hypnotize" (A little puzzled by that one. Probably the opening lines are what make them think that?)

Personally I like really like songs that are poetic, or almost sound like an ancient proverb. Stevie Wonder's "Look Around" and "If It's Magic" I think fit that category perfectly.

There's also a somewhat obscure band called Nahko and Medicine for the People that I find interesting because they often blend indigenous mythology and religion into their lyrics to explain a certain idea. If nothing else it's fun to at least research some of the references in the lyrics to figure out what they're talking about! My personal favorites are "Aloha Ke Akua", "Wash it Away" and "Black as Night"

As far as songs that tell a deeper story, The Police's "Synchronicity II" really intrigues me, because the title implies it's a continuation of "Synchronicity I" so the parallels in II seem to follow the theme of unrelated causes and effects tied together by meaning, even though it's not extremely obvious at first how. Really fun to listen to!

What are some of your favorite songs with deep or well crafted meanings?

Anything from Donald Fagen and Steely Dan

Love love love Synchronicity II, the whole Synchronicity album is a premium example of songwriting 💜

Off the top of my head, I'll throw out "All My Friends" by LCD Soundsystem. I first encountered it when I was asked to sing it for a friend's Celebration of Life ceremony, and while the song is unashamedly upbeat, the subject is very existential. One of the greatest odes to friendship that I've ever heard.

I also want to say any number of Weyes Blood songs, she's one of my all-time favorite writers. A spectrum of melancholy lyrics for any occasion, with lush production to land the coup de grâce. I frequently put on Titanic Rising when I'm heading to bed.

my main experience and observation with lyrics is that what speaks to one person may not resonate with the next. matter of taste, matter of perspective, matter of personality and disposition, probably a matter of all those things combined. it usually takes something specific that I can relate to or find clever or think is pretty to get song lyrics to resonate with me, but that's also one of the most powerful resonant vectors for music - when it hits, it fucking hits, right? I think I value that more than pure poetry or perceived depth. and I value the perceived earnestness of the singer, too.

I guess if I had to pick some lyricists I think are broadly poetic in their approach though, I'd go for the storytelling sort - John Darnielle (of the Mountain Goats), David Sylvian, Craig Finn, Tom Waits, Nick Cave. I think Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes) is particularly adept at bridging the gap between storyteller and personal emotional relater. Darnielle has done that before too but I get the sense he enjoys more the creation of a world. he has gone on to write novels after all.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how language and creativity intersect in the same sorts of ways that musical styles in different peoples' hands do... both with respect to lyrics and with other written word like books, in which authors command their own voices that can range all the way to beautifully uniquely idiosyncratic. there's so many approaches, so much space to play. it's only natural that listeners, too, discover spaces that they like (and don't particularly like) to play along!

Yeah I get what you mean, dami. A big part of it is definitely all those things. There still to me seems to be at least a tangible, mechanical skill at transferring meaning in a song, even if it's really up to the listener as to whether or not they pick up on what the artist is putting down.

For example, I'm not too big on hip-hop and rap music; just not as much my thing. But I still have the ability to appreciate and recognize the wordplay of a lot of the artists. It seems to suggest there's at least a part of it that isn't directly tied to emotion or preference.

war on drugs by barenaked ladies gives me chills and is very cathartic to scream to :)

Virtual Insanity hits different these days.

yeah, I agree retro. I was thinking of that one too. it's almost like... we're travelling without moving...

Gonna be the pretentious TOOL fan here and say 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2). Maynard wrote the song as a tribute to his mother who was paralyzed for around 10,000 days before she died.

What always struck me as especially powerful is how much the lyrics seem to respect his mother's religious faith---especially compared to their other songs like Opiate which are highly critical of religion. He's basically saying that if anybody deserves heaven to be real, it's her, and he's demanding the spirits to take her. Musically great too and always gives me chill bumps.

The song Sharks by The Tragically Hip talks about the Mariana Trench, which to my knowledge, is the deepest oceanic trench on earth

@retrokid104 you gotta stop stealing people's thunder, man. Ol Zeus over here beat me to virtual insanity

I've been obsessed with Van Dyke Parks's album Song Cycle for a while now. That album is incredibly dense with lyrical allusions, parallels, metaphors, wordplay, all that kind of fun literary stuff you can really dig into. He also wrote most of the lyrics for The Beach Boys' Smile (if I had to pick one song as an example for this thread it would be Surf's Up.)

One lyrical technique I'm especially fond of is "word painting," which is when the lyrics match what's happening in the music, like when the words "high" or "low" are sung as a high or low note, or like when the beat stops with the word "stop." There's a lot of less obvious ones, and songs become so fun to pick apart once you're looking for them!

I recently came across a really good ambient black metal band called Yellow Eyes and they have some pretty cool lyrics
their most recent album is incredible.

I'm also a big fan of Neurosis' lyrics. One of my favorite songs (and lyrics) is I Can See You

.
"In the oceans we can find you
For the sun we praise your name
In the dirt we pray for god to bring you back again
I can see you, I can see you
In the void the stones are turning and turning and turning"

It's really cool how they turn such an ominous title into a heartbreaking one.

i really like cool lyrics :)

@Fighter1 hard agree

But what a fool believes he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be
Is always better than nothing
And nothing at all keeps sending him

Somewhere back in her long ago
Where he can still believe there's a place in her life
Someday, somewhere, she will return

Heck yeah! So one of my favourite bands ever is Everything Everything. They hail from Manchester in the land of England. Before I was introduced to them, I didn't really think much about the lyrical element of songwriting, but they absolutely changed my perspective.

I've noticed a running general theme with them, where they like to discuss the ugly or difficult parts of human nature; societal flaws, cults of power, radicalization, and the human condition. That might not sound so special, but as is often the case, it's the execution that's so interesting.

"Nasa is on your side" is a song that - to my understanding - reflects the mindset of incompatibility with the technology we've created. How in spite of the advanced resources we have, we may find ourselves wanting to pull it all down. The lyrical content of the song is inferred to be from the perspective of a teenager, who sees themselves and others as simple fuel for the gears of capitalism.

Overall I think what the song's saying is that there's a part of many of us that almost wants to see our own burning Library of Alexandria, because for all we have and for how far humanity has come, we feel helpless and disillusioned, maybe more as a people than ever.
The band definitely don't believe that ignorance and regression to a past age is the answer (much the opposite, as shown in some of their other songs) but it's an exploration of that concept.

Also, this song's literally got the line: "Chasing homeless cheerleaders through the sewers, lit by burning polythene bags." I think that alone makes it S tier lyricism.

Waterfront

by David Sylvian

I got really long winded here, what can I say? I love sharing stuff. I'm checking out some of your recs too. These are a few songs that come to mind whose lyrics I especially enjoy or find meaningful.

radiohead - I'm surprised they haven't come up yet. There's a few I'd think of but I really enjoy the lyrics to Airbag

-- and yes, I have to look up the lyrics because I can't understand Yorke's words half the time, lol

nickel creek - they're amazing instrumentalists but I think don't get remembered as well for being great storytelling lyricists, which I think they are. Green and Gray.

I'd also mention Beauty and the Mess. That whole album seemed pretty self-reflective.

Conor Oberst / bright eyes' Road to Joy

is probably my favorite of theirs due to the contrast between the musical tone and the lyrics. I listen to it as a commentary on the American wars in Iraq/Afghanistan and wider social issues. I'd recommend this to anybody

Speaking of social commentaries, I'd be remiss if I didn't share Childish Gambino's This is America.

If you've never seen it, please be warned that it's got some upsetting violent content. Incredible song lyrics and visual symbolism tying in. The type of thing you could see in an art analysis class

Live - Lightning Crashes.

We're all in the circle of life and death! The lyrics still do it for me after hearing this a bajillion times

@quirby I saw BNL live once back in 2004 and they performed War on Drugs which was great. Another of theirs I think of is The Flag

which talks about the abuse cycle. They had a few weighty topics among their mainly lighthearted stuff

A Sunday

by Jimmy Eat World, a seminal album for me. The meaning of the lyrics changed for me over time.

Mind Idea

by Jeremy Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate. Love these lyrics so much

yeah Airbag is genius. I'm gonna pitch in with some of my favorite lyrics

I catch myself thinking about a line from this album DEMONSTRATION

I stumbled upon on bandcamp years ago
"I was wearing your favorite shirt
it's not your shirt, it's mine
I bought it for you though"
what a fun sentence structure

AnCo's Merriweather Post Pavillion has got to be one of the greatest albums of all time, and for a while I've decided that Taste has my favorite lyrics.
"He said, I like their clothes and their charming ways,
But what I really want is a simple place,
With no fashion clothes--cause you can't eat those"
probably not for everyone but a similarly clever and meaningful line

Women's Public Strain is an album that reportedly started a million bands, and it's also probably not a very good example for lyric writing just cause you can't hear what he's saying most of the time. If you're like me this album's tortured futuristic version of garage rock will stick with you forever.

Also Geese / Cameron Winter. at this rate Geese will be the most popular band in the world eventually

Mike Mulligan by Wevie Stonder

Omg of course you know who wevie stonder is tennisers, why am I surprised? xDD

insert obligatory hey ya by outkast

The Protomen’s “Light Up The Night” is also a pretty good song. Feels relevant somehow.

Gonna throw out another one I though of:

People tend to think more passively about it these days, being it's a "classic" and all, but Bob Marley & The Wailer's "Get up, stand up" has a pretty deep message to unpack in it. The "rights" it's talking about are not inherently political. It's about the right to live your life. It's critical of people's disregard for the earth, whether that be the environment, or just how we treat others. It also kinda throws shade at people viewing an afterlife as the "real" life, and feeling as if living life as it is now is nothing more than "a layover for their next destination", as it were, and not taking advantage of living it to the fullest.

For example, the first verse:

Preacher man, don't tell me heaven is under the earth
I know you don't know what life is really worth
It's not "all that glitters is gold"
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light
So stand up for your right

...and the second:

Most people think Great God will come from the sky
Take away everything, and make everybody feel high
But if you knew what life is worth, you would look for yours on earth
So now you see the light
So stand up for your right

for a more serious answer, i don't listen to songs for meaning, i listen to music for the image they create, so i don't look for something "deep", i just look for something expressive or playful

to me "get up stand up" is one of many bigot-ish songs by bob marley. although i do respect the will to emancipate from british political and cultural domination, making up a different religious bigotry is imo no solution.

afai understand, when marley says "you would look for yours on earth", he means haile selassie is the living god that white people are not paying attention to.

i hear this song as a mess of necessary anti-colonialism mixed with useless religious nonsense. it is interesting as a document, and as an emotion conveyor, but i would not call it "deep"

@YQN Yeah, the part about Selassie is definitely a thing... I still wouldn't necessarily label the song as bigoted outright, but it's definitely a product of its time and place, for sure. I do think the political and religious contexts and references in the song tend to cloud the core principle, being that life in the present is not to be dismissed as trivial or unimportant, and it's wisdom on our part to do what we can to improve it. Definitely there's a lot more to it than that (I omitted Peter Tosh's verse for a reason), but I still think that core idea is important and valuable.

@PlugNPlay i clearly have a different reading but i must confess english isn't my mother tongue so maybe i'm just misunderstanding the song

"Blockheads", a death metal / grindcore band from france. I just love both their lyrics and their music.
Especially from the album "Shapes of Misery"
I bought it on an old distro (Season of Mist, if I remember correctly) back then and now it looks unfindable. Their bandcamp page

has just the next release of them: "This world is dead".

However, i found lyrics of the whole "Shapes of Misery" album on internet (and also on the booklet if you find it lol)
lyrics

trigger warning : some tracks, such as "swallow back" which denounces sexual slavery, are cruel and explicit

the track "Loser" hits me in the guts:

I am a loser, or so I am told,
Looked down on by all, alone in the crowd.
Slapped in the face everyday, despised,
just ignored, no one cares.
Thrown in the mud, kicked around,
Under pressure, preyed upon,
Clockwork ticking, living bomb,
Give me a gun I'll teach you all.
You believe I will never stand up,
That I'm not strong enough to oppose you,
Schoolyard shooting will be my answer,
Kill you, kill them all that did not speak out.
I am alone, alone in the crowd,
Gun in my hand, and killing in mind,
Shoot all around, madness on display,
Who will you blame ? Social bomb exploded.

i very often think about the song "Everything Is Easy" by death's dynamic shroud. i wasn't going into that album expecting it to be this impactful, but goddamn the title track caught me offguard to say the least. highly recommend that listen, just in general. support dds i do think they're really cool lol

I've listened to a lot of music recently and one song thats always stuck out to me is The Ministry of Lost Souls by Dream Theater. Upon first listen it's very noticable that its a heavier emotional song, and I did more research into it and its a lot heavier emotionally than I originally thought, but I'm not gonna go in depth on it, I'll let yall do that if you choose. It's a 15 minute long song so it's not for everyone, but it's one of my favorite songs of all time

For me, the way lyrics are delivered and the emotion behind them will always eclipse what's actually being said. That being said - exceptional lyrics, paired with raw emotion and a sense of earnestness are what pack the most punch.

As resident emo trash - most of what resonates with me is deeply emotional, introspective, and about love or lamenting interpersonal relationships, society, heartbreak, loss, etc. I also hold a lot of space for the explosive catharsis of angst, spite, and venom. Here's a particularly resonant few:

Circa Survive - Holding Someone's Hair Back

Storytelling, emotional lament, desperation, spite. (Fun Fact: This song is based on the story of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind & one of my favorite films!)

Dance Gavin Dance - Happiness

Everything with Kurt Travis, their most short-lived vocalist, but quite literally packed more real emotion into those two albums than the rest of the band's combined discography. Devastating song about loss and a broader overall examination of depression.

AFI - Silver And Cold

A poignant anthem, poetically warning of the dangers of becoming a martyr and shield for all of the sins and suffering of a loved one, making their plight your own and losing yourself in the process.

Porter Robinson - Mirror

A dialogue of self to self - an introspection that personifies self-hate, self-doubt, fear and holds a mirror up to the truth of these thoughts and negative self-identity as self generated untruths based in outside of reality. It sounds simple when you put it that way, but this song was the only one that ever got that message across to me, in a time where I needed it most. In general, this entire album "Nurture" is somewhere between a Studio Ghibli film & a tender yet intensive therapy session.

The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

Explores the awkward and painful displacement brought on by the aftermath of a breakup - having to share space, cross paths, and see how swiftly your once significant other has not only changed, but moved on.

Tracy Bonham - Mother Mother

An angsty lament about struggling and barely scraping by after moving out and becoming independent, and the lies that "everything is fine" that one tells their mother (either to ease her mind so she doesn't worry, or because she wouldn't understand, respect, or support you if you were to be honest about your reality).