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Mel Holl's avatar

This was so insightful! Thank you for generously sharing your process! I think we are all guilty of writing some cringe song lyrics/poetry, but I agree that it's all part of the process to discovering one's own unique voice and style.

As to the news of late, people in the nineteenth century used to refer to the civil war as the "late unpleasantness," which I am adopting for whatever the hell is going on right now. :-)

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Nick Antonoglu's avatar

Really loved this read! I am definitely guilty of being too vague in my writing in general, sometimes I find it hard to disconnect my mental image of what something should read as versus what it actually reads as.

Going to go on another Adrienne binge now!

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Igor's Cultural Cove's avatar

Great read! We definitely share quite a few thoughts about lyric-writing. Especially the concept that the main point of lyrics is for them to be understood emotionally and not necessarily at face value. One of my biggest inspirations in lyric-writing are Radiohead, which I imagine to be for you as well, since the quote "Your perfect intuition

We heard the news from you

A little big-picture frightening

The woman in the blue" sounds straight out of Thom Yorke's pen

I usually really appreciate your lyrics, especially in "Do it"

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The Ririverse's avatar

I actually think there’s nothing shameful at all about writing break-up lyrics - it’s what a lot of songwriters start from and honestly, I am kind of embarrassed that I seem to be almost incapable of writing them :D it’s very refreshing to see that you’ve had the experience of moving to the realm of “mildly annoying stuff” cause that’s also my primary source of lyrical inspiration.

I also have to admit, I’ve never stopped to think about lyrics writing as a methodology, but you’re so right - there’s always this fine line between concrete images and abstraction and it’s felt rather than seen.

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Dan Peters's avatar

Nice piece! Really agreed with your thoughts about balancing the concrete and abstract, and being guilty of too many vague lyrics when I was younger

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