Mixtape Monday (2): lyrics

I’m a sucker for lyrics. I like listening to them, looking them up and I always want to know what someone's singing. This mixtape has a lot of "sad" songs, whenever I feel sad it's just good to know other people are worse ;)
It was hard to pick 15 songs, because there are so many good lyrics around. (And I've probably forgotten a lot of "classics"...)

1. Leonard Cohen – Avalanche “I stepped into an avalanche and it covered up my soul” --> gets me every time I hear it. Damn. Mr. Cohen is godlike.
2. Patrick Wolf - The Tinderbox “dark to one spark and I have your heart”. I love the fact it is about one of my favourite fairy tales :)
3. The Mountain Goats – Never Quite Free “It's so good to learn that from right here the view goes on forever/ And you'll never want for comfort, and you'll never be alone”. This song gives me hope.
4. M. Ward – Poor Boy, Minor Key. Just love the line “one day they’ll be as giants/ stronger than the sun/ but that day ain’t yet come”.
5. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the aeroplane over the sea. “how strange it is to be anything at all”. Jeff Mangum writes amazing lyrics. Fact. Listen to the entire album, it’s soooo good.
6. The Low Anthem – The Ballad of the Broken Bones “So my friends if you're worried / Don't worry about me /The grasses are green here /The winters are mild/ And the hunger is passing /It's just a sensation/ And over the world am I”(Reminds me of the movie Into The Wild)
7. Andrew Bird – Armchairs. One of the most cryptic songwriters I know, and I love the fact his lyrics can be interpreted in many ways. This song makes me tear up every time, and the image of “a cosmonaut of the space between our chairs” is just amazing.
8. Johnny Flynn – The Wrote and the Writ. Mr. Flynn is a true troubadour, a storyteller. This is his masterpiece!
9. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Gardener. Cool song about a guy who kills the new love of his girl and buries him in his garden ;) “Death will grow my jasmine”
10. Of Montreal – The Past is a Grotesque Animal “in its eyes you see/ how completely wrong you can be”. I once heard a live version of this song, it’s got a lot of lyrics but it just grabs you.
11. Mark Lanegan – Bombed. A perfect love song, in just 1:08. Marvellous.
12. Bowerbirds – the Ticonderoga. “Dreaming on my pillow – of high tide”. That’s been my motto for quite a while.
13. Megafaun – The Longest Day. Banjo FTW, but the lyrics are even more win. Perfect song for when you miss someone dearly.
14. Phosphorescent – Wolves. Another example of lyrics that can be interpreted in many ways. I like to think of a person who’s in trouble (mentally) and turns to someone (his mother, because that’s what we all do, don’t we?) for help. Mom knows best.
15. Bright Eyes – Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (To Loved and to be loved). Truly amazing (and political) song, from 2002 – when Conor Oberst still wrote decent songs ;) Don’t care much for his recent material.

Enjoy! You can find the Spotify list here.