Lyrics

Songs with good lyrics should be able to connect with people in different ways. If a song can be interpreted in different ways because of their ambiguous or poetic lyrics, then it’s a good song.

The song ¨Just¨ off of Radiohead´s 2nd Studio album, The Bends, is a good example. The music and composition is what makes this song appealing to me, but the lyrics try to bring up an interesting message.  The song could be interpreted many different ways. For me, the song is about how many people put themselves in bad situations that give them many problems, and its their own fault they are in these situations, but don’t do anything to help the situation they are in.

Some people put themselves in bad situations they can bring themselves out of, but don’t. For Example, being in an abusive relationship, or struggling with and addiction. Some people’s problems or sadness is self inflicted and there’s no one to blame but themselves, hence the line “You do it to yourself, you do. And that’s what really hurts”. The line “Don’t get my sympathy”also kind of plays at this idea. The line  “you’ve changed the locks 3 times, he still comes reeling through the door” means that the problems can’t just be ignored. This song can resonate and connect to many people, whether you or someone you know is in any of these situations. Ones that they can easily fix but decide not to for different reasons.

The writer of the songs Thom Yorke, probably knew someone that was in an abusive relationship, and was inspired to write this song. Most of the lyrics are very odd and ambiguous but the ones I chose are the ones that made think this is what the song is about.

I do not care that much about lyrics, but I do appreciate songs that try to bring up or play at interesting ideas. For me harmonies are more important than the the lyrics, they are what really give a song meaning. A song can have sad lyrics, and not sound sad. But when a song is written to sound sad, and the lyrics match with what the emotion the music or harmonies are trying to convey, then it is a good song. Songs like this can truly resonate with several of people’s emotions. “Just” is a good example of this, and that is why I chose it.