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A review by fipah
Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison
3.0
3 stars = I liked it
This certainly is one of the few solid and approachable books on lyric writing out there. IMHO it is useful, the author demonstrates several strategies to improve your lyrics with non-confusing examples that are reprinted each and every time a small change is made. This is super useful as you can see the before-and-after right there without the need to 'imagine' what a small lyric change would make to the overall feel of a section. Overall, I'd recommend it unless you've read too many books on lyric writing.
What I did not like: Honestly, this is more subjective, but this book has this cringy 1980's / older-male-musician / 1990's-rock-band-wannabe feel to it and in my opinion, this approach to music and lyrics is narrow and we've already overcome it. Of course, the author is a Berklee professor and by no means am I saying that his expertise does not count. I just wanted to showcase the underlying vibe of the book. You can feel he was present on the rockband scene when only record labels dictated how music is made and consumed. Vaguely said, it really reminds me of older men writing lyrics the way it was done back then. All throughout the book I wanted a more modern, youthful and all-embracing feel. Mr Pattison scathingly criticises the use of clichés, however, to my surprise, many of the lyrics he wrote as examples were indeed very dated and clichéd. There is, like I mentioned, this guy-wants-a-girl vibe that is told from his perspective. This cliché romantic guy heroism vibe. This is further accentuated by the use of the third person lyrics (She goes home, and all she can see is emptiness...). Similarly cringy is the heroic and dramatic social critique/commentary lyrics that rarely work out well - they just feel patronising-ish, trite, hackneyed and pompous.
However, when you ignore this vibe, the technicalities of the book certainly are enriching and serve one well in writing lyrics.
This certainly is one of the few solid and approachable books on lyric writing out there. IMHO it is useful, the author demonstrates several strategies to improve your lyrics with non-confusing examples that are reprinted each and every time a small change is made. This is super useful as you can see the before-and-after right there without the need to 'imagine' what a small lyric change would make to the overall feel of a section. Overall, I'd recommend it unless you've read too many books on lyric writing.
What I did not like: Honestly, this is more subjective, but this book has this cringy 1980's / older-male-musician / 1990's-rock-band-wannabe feel to it and in my opinion, this approach to music and lyrics is narrow and we've already overcome it. Of course, the author is a Berklee professor and by no means am I saying that his expertise does not count. I just wanted to showcase the underlying vibe of the book. You can feel he was present on the rockband scene when only record labels dictated how music is made and consumed. Vaguely said, it really reminds me of older men writing lyrics the way it was done back then. All throughout the book I wanted a more modern, youthful and all-embracing feel. Mr Pattison scathingly criticises the use of clichés, however, to my surprise, many of the lyrics he wrote as examples were indeed very dated and clichéd. There is, like I mentioned, this guy-wants-a-girl vibe that is told from his perspective. This cliché romantic guy heroism vibe. This is further accentuated by the use of the third person lyrics (She goes home, and all she can see is emptiness...). Similarly cringy is the heroic and dramatic social critique/commentary lyrics that rarely work out well - they just feel patronising-ish, trite, hackneyed and pompous.
However, when you ignore this vibe, the technicalities of the book certainly are enriching and serve one well in writing lyrics.