He is definitely a gifted lyricist and composer. His ability to put forth such complex concepts in his songs with seeming effortlessness is really amazing. Take "Cont," for example. That's a song, like "School Song" in MATILDA, that is written to be played twice and understood differently through a second layer of comprehension on second hearing. While it's hardly novel, what strikes me as a particular kind of genius is the way he applies the form of that repetition to inform his political point and the song's intended parable. His construction, his formal logic, his perspective is both so intelligent and so clearly (and delightfully) presented. He's really something special, and I love almost everything I've seen of his.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
Updated On: 7/11/13 at 11:15 PM
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