Unlike it would seem everyone else here I am a big fan of lyrics. I used to get albums when I was younger and play them over and over until I had all the lyrics to all the songs (way way before the internet made it so easy). It helps me to be able to sing (really badly) along with the songs when they play. Even now, if I hear a bad lyric or even an out-of-place one in a song it won't ruin it for me, but it will give me less pleasure than it would had it been properly constructed.
Being an aspiring writer I have a love of the English language and so I guess this may be partially to blame. I love a lyric that tells a good story --- you'll have seen this trait in me if you've read my "More than words" section in my journal, or indeed "The Word according to Waits". I personally don't care how good you think the music is, if the lyric is bad then the song for me suffers as a whole. On the flip side, great lyrics to a terrible tune is just as bad.
I think a song, or album, is an opportunity for the artiste to share his her or their point of view, let us inside their heads and hearts, and if they don't do this, and do it properly, I consider it a chance wasted. I think you can understand a lot more about an artiste if you listen to their lyrics, although of course some like Mike Oldfield, Vangelis, Carbon Based Lifeforms etc can get their music across perfectly well without the benefit of lyrics. That, though, is an entirely different story.
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
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