cLabs

BakeItIn

October 03, 2007
When someone writes a song, I presume it says something important to them. Very often though, I think the amateur writer fails to include enough context in the song for it to effectively communicate to others. When they sing through it themselves, they have their head and their heart included in the proceedings, and the circle is complete. In that case, the lyric and music can afford to be full of holes. The work of writing is infusing into the words and sounds the same thoughts and feelings that are otherwise taken for granted by the author, such that another listener might have a chance of seeing more of the original circle the work was based on.

On the other hand, a song that's too explicit many times doesn't work because it tries to make something concrete out of the mysterious, and in the process blows all the smoke away and nothing is communicated. A song often needs to be ambiguous enough to allow the listener to fill in the cracks with their own experience and interpretation.