It occurred to me that some of the music I listen to just naturally sounds better via headphones than via laptop speakers. Or at least, it's easier to notice the more subtle aspects of the music (the kind of stuff that usually makes me love it) when you're being immersed in it as opposed to hearing it in the background.

One thing that's come up in my thoughts recently was a time earlier this year when I heard someone say that music with words is better than music without words. And then on other occasions when other people would speak about how the lyrics of a song are what really strikes at them, or what really makes them love a song.

I dunno, to be honest. I can't say I've personally had that experience; that moment when I start shivering because a song lyric suddenly strikes somewhere at me inside. For some reason lyrics have always been something that I've kinda not paid attention to as much in music, unless they obviously stand out in some way. For me, it's always been about the music, and more specifically the interaction between the different instruments/vocals/other factors contributing to it, and the hidden subtleties within that. For some of my favorite bands (Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins), it's hard to tell what the singer is saying a lot of time (or in CT's case the singer is purposefully making unintelligible sounds); the music itself tends to take precedence over what the singer is actually saying. Or at least, in my head anyway; their intentions might have been otherwise. I dunno.

I mean, I can appreciate lyrics for what they are, but I've never really cared about them so much as I have for the music itself. I can't say I understand what a good deal of the songs I listen to actually mean, even when I can tell what they're saying. I just love them for the way they sound.

Of course, there are some exceptions (Stars :)), but yeah.

I wish I had more space for music. I've barely scraped the surface of what I would like with what I have.

PS: On thing that did get me was when a friend of mine heard Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl playing on my computer and said something along the lines of "That's it?" with regards to the lyrics (context: for a significant portion of the song, the only lines that are repeated are "park that car/drop that phone/sleep on the floor/dream about me" and etc.). I was mildly offended... but I'm not really mad about it.

I mean, just from looking at those lyrics, they don't seem that significant, right? But at the same time, especially within the context of the music and the overall mood evoked by the song, they're all that's necessary to convey the essence of it. It's hard to describe without hearing it, but it feels almost... tribal in a sense?

-(a seventeen year old girl. the reverberating drums, the violins and guitar strumming in the background, these words repeated over and over and over again... it's all about the mood. period.)

This was one of the first songs I ever heard by Broken Social Scene (the other being Cause=time), and it's one of the reasons why I fell in love with the band. To be honest, I haven't listened to it that much in the past couple of years now, but I still love it when I do come back to it. That's just how it is, I guess.