Originally Posted by Conan

His lyrics were to me always less about any particular subject and more indicative of what an artistic, tortured soul he was. Lore holds that a lot of Nirvana's lyrics were pieces of poems he had written, creating that choppy, self contridictory style.

Some of them had messages or archs but to me the fragmented, sometimes nonsensical, sometimes cryptic lyrics always deepened the emotional impact of the band.

Black Francis was also in my mind a lyrical genius. He took a cryptic approach and still drove it home somehow - I could feel it but i didn't really know/care what I was feeling.