Dance Gavin Dance - Artificial Selection (June 8, 2018) Album • Page 32

Man, Bloodsucker would be such a great song without those lyrics.

 

Disagree with this for the Kurt albums.

 

Yeah Happiness is absolutely a lyrical album for me and Deathstar had some genuinely personal moments from Mess that were fucking great. Tillian is an awful lyricist however so I can see why people would have just tuned out his words

 

Mess was only truly great lyrically on Death Star and DBM2 tbh

 

The only song I'll praise lyrically from Tillian is Awkward.

 

kurt is the only person who has ever had good lyrics in this band

 

Jonny was a terrible lyricist
Mess was never great but now he’s unbearable
Swan was pretty good in the Mess role on Happiness
Tilian might be the worst of them all which seems impossible but still

....but Kurt was v good, especially on Happiness

 

I measure Mess's lyrics by how entertaining they are and the syntax. Dbm2 and DS have a lot of funny zingers and cool flows, so I like those.

 

Jonny was a bad lyricist for the most part, but was never trying to be anything but a usual pop R&B lyricist. Writing songs about sex and feeling sad/betrayed was all he really needed to do.

Jon slowly developed in to a caricature of himself, which would be bad if the casual fan actually paid attention to what he said.

Tilian just sounds like he's saying words that vaguely relate to a topic, but don't actually have meaning. They're just sorta there to fill the space in a song with loose metaphors and #relatable themes.

Will was actually pretty good at playing off Kurt, who wrote some damn impressive lyrics.

 

Jonny, Kurt and Tilian are all varying degrees of generally below average.

I, however, find it almost impossible to meaningfully assess Mess' lyrics. If he's actively trying to be absurd, and succeeds in being absurd, doesn't that mean he's doing what he does well?

Edit: That's actually dodgy as fuck reasoning. I still find it borderline impossible to meaningfully assess his lyrics though.

 

On my first listen of this I liked it but only suspended, flash, shelf life, and evaporate really stood out, though a few had some really cool moments. I like it more on second and third listens. I think mothership was much more versatile, especially in tilian’s melodies, but it’s a fun record

As for lyrics, I think Tilian’s actually kinda unique, they’re just not particularly good or resonant. After thinking about all those bands that rattle off cliche after cliche, though, I at least appreciate he largely steers clear of that. Agree though that mess’s lyrics have become a parody of themselves. At least he sounds great, the flow is definitely what’s most important for him.

 

I agree with this and it's why the run from the former to the latter is this band's sweet spot imo. Mess is raw as fuck and genuinely in his feelings on Deathstar and it shows with People You Know, Hot Water on Wool etc being his best performances with the band imo.

He's not emotional on DBMII he's just really fucking funny. The amount of quotable lyrics and punchlines is off the charts, but it's also the start of him being Flanderised on the subsequent albums bit by bit.

 

Jon's lyrics started to noticeably drop in quality on Mothership for me but honestly I still do not know about 50% of his lyrics, I only ever look them up when something sounds weird lol. When Midnight Crusade came out people said one of his lyrics at the end was about licking poop, which makes him look dumb as hell, but the line - "I'm kissing the babies, they're licking the boot" - is actually quite clever.

 

I liked Mess' lines on Instant Gratification. They were never over the line, and always complimented Tilian's themes.

"I believe denial makes me hella intelligent
I know we trust each other; don’t fail the litmus
We all need partners for the pain of existence
My bedroom chemistry set ended up on your Pinterest
Pledging allegiance to a few common interests"

 

I listened to some of Self Titled this morning, and man, Mess is pretty hard to listen to on that one.

 

DBM II he even sounds worse, so much more grating for me

 

Mess' vocals improved a lot with AS1

 

Uneasy Hearts is still the jam on here though.

 

I’ve said this before, but even though I don’t generally care for DBMII Mess really improved, and continues to be good. Honestly he’s very good with melody the last 4 records. S/T will always be my favorite, but I do think a lot of his screaming on it are dated.

 

I just wonder what the conversation was that eventually got Chino on the album. "this song has a dope atmosphere like a Deftones song, I can just hear Chino singing this part." "uhhhh guys I actually know him, want me to see if he wants to come to the studio?"

 

If death star had DBM2 screams it might be their best, but the rough vocals do bring it down a tad

 

I forget how good Happiness is sometimes, sorry if I talked trash on it at some point during this thread.

 

Deftones were literally recording in a studio next-door I think I think I remember them saying in an AmA that the song was the last to be written and they were still working on it in the studio, and they just asked him to be on it. One of their best songs for me

 

This is on Spotify now for anyone who didn't listen to the leak.

Like me.

I better not hate this.

 

It’s not for the US yet tho