music vs. lyrics - balanced/unbalanced combinations?

[japanesebaby]

something that started in another topic http://curefans.com/index.php/topic,1127.msg53102.html#msg53102
where mahood said:

and there's actually another digressing option in the discussion you started : great lyrics versus poor music & vice versa.
or when the combination of both doesn't work (RS said that about snow in summer, a song i really like btw).
& i happen to like jupiter crash both lyrically & musically, too.
strangely, as much as i dislike wendy time on wish, i love the 5 imaginary boys & demo versions, but maybe the lyrics don't fit on these (well, they do, on a strictly melodic point of view). here i can understand why they would change the music so drastically, but then it's just a crappy song, where there was a great one.

i thought this might be an interetsing topic on its own.
so, what other combinations/impressions like this - what do you think?

i've always thought that 'all cats are grey' is a combination that doesn't somehow work (for me, at least). there're definitely some great lyrics there and not bad music either - but...
i used to listen to it before i really read through/understood the words and got to know the song by the music, created an impression of it pretty much through music only. i simply didn't pay attention to the words at all at that point. then i looked into the words and i was really surprised to find how great contradiction there was, between the two. musically i think it's somehow a very "comfortable" song: calm, with "cool temperatures" but no desolation or hopelessness... and yet the lyrics must be one of the most desolate ones you can find among the cure songs.
i never became completely familiar the combination and although i do not think the song is a failure because of this, it has always somehow vexed me - like i'm not sure what robert was really trying to say there.

[revolt]

i've always thought that 'all cats are grey' is a combination that doesn't somehow work (for me, at least). there're definitely some great lyrics there and not bad music either - but...
i used to listen to it before i really read through/understood the words and got to know the song by the music, created an impression of it pretty much through music only. i simply didn't pay attention to the words at all at that point. then i looked into the words and i was really surprised to find how great contradiction there was, between the two. musically i think it's somehow a very "comfortable" song: calm, with "cool temperatures" but no desolation or hopelessness... and yet the lyrics must be one of the most desolate ones you can find among the cure songs.
i never became completely familiar the combination and although i do not think the song is a failure because of this, it has always somehow vexed me - like i'm not sure what robert was really trying to say there.

Well, lyrics on "All Cats are Grey" are somewhat cryptic, but I think they probably relate to a dream of sorts... a desolate dream, that is. Anyway, i agree that the music is CALM but also think that it is very melancholic, although in a soft, understated way. So I actually think that it all fits together: music, voice and lyrics are all subdued and all convey a subtle feeling of sadness.

[revolt]

One example of unbalanced combination of music/lyrics is "The Promise", I think. The music is trippy, based on a groovy bassline that slowly builds and builds, but lyrics are too whiney in this context. And not particularly creative.

This is a shame because musically "The Promise", though not revolutionary, is kind of a new thing for The Cure: it cannot really be called DARK or MOODY or ROMANTIC or AGGRESSIVE or any word that you usually use to describe "serious" Cure songs. It's just a laidback groove that eventually grows to massive proportions simply by increasing the intensity of the playing...

[revolt]

'In Between Days' is another example of unbalance, I think. OK, in this case we have a pop song with pop lyrics, so in a way you can say that they fit... But it's such a contagious pop song that you wished Robert had put more effort in writing the lyrics. It just seems that he wrote the first rhymes that sprang to mind... Here's a particularly "good" example:

come back come back
don't walk away
come back come back
come back today
come back come back
why can't you see?
come back come back
come back to me

This sort of lazy lyrics was something you could not find in Cures songs prior to 1985. Even the most poppy silly ditties had some clever or otherwise creative verses...

[mint car]

So What? is great example 
lyrics total out and music is fantastic 

[mahood]

i've always thought that 'all cats are grey' is a combination that doesn't somehow work (for me, at least). there're definitely some great lyrics there and not bad music either - but...
i used to listen to it before i really read through/understood the words and got to know the song by the music, created an impression of it pretty much through music only. i simply didn't pay attention to the words at all at that point.

i cannot count how many songs i have listened to without understanding a thing, starting with in between days & close to me, the first songs i heard on the radio.
and i learned english with the cure, because i wanted to understand the words - it was with disintegration. and i could, even partially, translate them. but then, when i started to translate faith & pornography, some songs just spoke &?/!¨°)- to me. and all cats are grey still does, so i cannot even feel there is a bad combination there. i mean, i just hear "columns", and "cave", and "cats", and "sing along", some words sung just to put some atmosphere in it. ambient words.

[mahood]

come back come back
come back come back
come back come back
come back come back

yes, but still, there is something that you won't find in, say, the only one : the lyrics (as simple as they may sound) don't quite fit the music : this is what the cure does best, and actually, when thinking about unbalanced combinations, i realised how many there where, but in a perfect way. just like heaven wouldn't be like this if the lines said only "so so so happy, the sun is so shiny".
this is why i never liked friday i'm in love, mint car, and so on. perfect combinations maybe, boring ones certainly, and definitely not the best singles.

i was thinking of another example of a strange combination : closedown. musically, it's close to sort of a twisted ballad, but still a ballad. it took me years to accept how you could sing such words on this, and now i cannot think of this song being different. this combination is amazing.

[firecrasher]

So What? is great example 
lyrics total out and music is fantastic 

English is my native language and I still couldn't understand half of those lyrics :( Except for "December Nineteen sevennnnnnty niiiiiine!"

[KingOfSomeIsland]

So What is about delicious cake. Im not even kidding.

And i really dont feel that Inbetween Days is a good example of unbalance. Its a very simple melody so very simple lyrics fit very well.

[revolt]

And i really dont feel that Inbetween Days is a good example of unbalance. Its a very simple melody so very simple lyrics fit very well.

Yeah, but the music is simple AND inspired, whereas the lyrics are simple AND kind of ordinary. That's the unbalance.

[revolt]

So What? is great example 
lyrics total out and music is fantastic 

English is my native language and I still couldn't understand half of those lyrics :( Except for "December Nineteen sevennnnnnty niiiiiine!"

Well, here they are, in all their silly glory:


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[firecrasher]

I love the fact that you can hear the sugar packet being crumpled up and thrown out after the last "soooo whaaaaaat?" 

[mint car]

I love the fact that you can hear the sugar packet being crumpled up and thrown out after the last "soooo whaaaaaat?" 

I love this song. Every time when I hear this song I laugh so much Robert, you know perfectly to improvise 

[thecupcakegeisha]

....If you could go back and change one thing about the original formation of the band, what would it be?

[KingOfSomeIsland]

I love the fact that you can hear the sugar packet being crumpled up and thrown out after the last "soooo whaaaaaat?" 

PLEASE SEND ME ICING AND DECORATING SETS