Singer/Songwriters Who Are Equal Parts Poet and Musicians: It's All in the Words

As both a musician and a writer, I find myself most times falling in love with artists who can convey a story, or an emotion with their words. Don't get me wrong, I can get into a catchy hook or beat and let them envelop me as well. Yet for me, nothing will ever compare to a lyricist who can use words like true assets, spinning gold with straw consistently and an inspiring way. These are four of my very favorite lyricists, I'm sure there are a couple you may not know too well.

Butch Walker - Walker was the dynamic front band of perhaps the greatest band to ever get screwed over by a major record label, Marvelous 3. In the context of that band Walker's lyrics were scorching, down to earth, and sounded like someone of his generation just speaking what was on his mind. Marvelous 3 had one huge hit with the song "Freak of the Week" off their major label debut "Hey! Album."

For my money though, it's a track off their last record entitled "Cigarette Lighter Love Song" that represents Walker's best work. A ballad, the song is a heartbreaking and honest story of a love affair that's all but grown cold, perhaps to the point of breaking. The verses contain gems like "And my lips are raw as Hell from biting on them just to stay awake. It's not like I'm gonna need 'em; you won't be around to see me bend and break."

These days Butch is also a prominent song writer, having written hit singles for Weezer, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, The Donnas and Hot Hot Heat, just to name a few. Walker is sort of like an industry secret weapon. His talent for writing and producing has kept his career afloat and thriving, and artists clamor to have his stamp put on their work.

Elvis Costello - Okay, so much everyone has at least heard of Elvis Costello at this point; I'll concede that. Costello first splashed onto the scene in the late 1970s with his debut album "My Aim Is True," which featured tracks like "Alison," "Welcome to the Working Week," "Red Shoes," and "Watching the Detectives," just to name a few. Costello's range as a lyricist was already abundantly clear on that debut album. His style is narrative, focused just as much on the story and images of the lyrics as the melody and rhyming patterns.

Costello's sophomore album, "This Year's Model" also put his prowess on prominent display. Tracks like "No Action," "This Year's Girl," and "I Don't Want To Got To Chelsea" allow Costello to wrap bits of prose around the songs, giving rise to a truly unique style. If you're looking to stand in awe of someone's lyrical ability, look no further than "Less Than Zero," a loping slow trot of a song that spins a yarn of depravity and moral turpitude. "Turn up the TV, no one listening will suspect even your mother won't detect it so your Father won't know. They think I got no respect but everything means less than zero."

Costello is a genuine icon of an era. His quirky suits and horn rim glasses belie an undercurrent of raw emotion. This same duality is the approach that Costello took so much of his early work. One could sense angst when he sang "Radio, Radio" and told us that record executives were just out for the mighty dollar and that they'd "anesthetize the way that you feel," but all that angst never spilled out in true vitriol, but rather honest emotion, making him the genius lyricist that he is.

Beck - Beck is an artist that only comes around once in a great, long while. In conversations, I always point to him as being the most diversely talented musician of our generation. In his career he's had albums that range from hip-hop infused rock to 1970s-era prog rock to an album that serious funk and disco undertones. All along the way, he's managed to match his musical range with the lyrics he writes, showing that he's capable of both the strange and the heartfelt.

Though it's not as popular as some of his other albums like "Mellow Gold," "Odelay," or "The Information," I find some of his best work on "Sea Change." It does contain the mega hit "Lost Cause," but in my opinion the song "Paper Tiger" is where Beck really shone on that album. The song has a low-key bedding on which Beck can lay his lyrical content. "No more ashes to ashes, no more cinders from the sky. And all the laws of Creation tell a dead man how to die."

Of course, Beck is so delightful eclectic in the songs that he writes, that he's also given to flights of fancy, stringing near nonsense together into a quilt of stunning imagery. He's an artist that is impossible to pigeonhole into one style or genre musically, so it would only make sense that you could not easily define his style as a lyric writer either. With Beck, it's best just to buckle your seat belt and take whatever ride he's offering at the time; chances are it won't be forgettable.

MIke Doughty - Mike Doughty is an artist that would've done just fine in the era of poetry and sonnets. His undeniable talent for the spoken and written word is evident both in his song writing, and in the occasional piece he'll write for newspapers. A New Yorker through and through, his lyrics have a potent combination of refinement that still leaves room for raw emotion. He can conjure up imagery and emotion together in a way that is beguiling; something new can be heard nearly every time you listen to one of his songs.

First hitting the mainstream in the early 90's with his band Soul Coughing, Doughty is the textbook definition of an artist. His lyrics then were as enigmatic as they were rhythmic. This was done with good reason as Soul Coughing was an intense mixing of blues, rock and hip-hop that at its pinnacle was a topsy-turvy ride through beats and sounds that left the listener transported.

When Soul Coughing disbanded, Doughty focused his energies on being a true singer-songwriter. Eschewing for the most part the more "rap" like elements of his cadence, Doughty still held on to the vibrant vocabulary that allows his kind of wordplay to really shine. If you put me in a room with no way out except to name my favorite Doughty solo-era lyric, it'd be a tough task, however I think I'd go with "Sunken-Eyed Girl." In it, Doughty describes small vignettes of life in the city, giving us the lyrical gem

"Sunken-eyed girl on Delancey Street. Bulletproof glass in the KFC so keep the man safe in his paper hat. Keep the wrong hands off the biscuit fortune." Anyone who can write a catchy melody around the absurdity of bulletproof glass in a fast-food fried chicken establishment is just fine in my book.