Everything is relative. On one hand, elaborate lyrics make you appreciate "
the how". That is, how the idea or the story is expressed. On the other hand, lyrics that are simply evocative allow space for your imagination. Both things are interesting, if at least there is an idea behind them:
Quote:
Shadows of shadows passing. It is now 1831, and as always, I am absorbed with a delicate thought. It is how poetry has indefinite sensations, to which end, music is an essential. Since the comprehension of sweet sound is our most indefinite conception, music when combined with a pleasurable idea is poetry. Music without the idea is simply music. Without music or an intriguing idea, colour become pallor, man becomes carcass, home becomes catacomb, and the dead are but for a moment motionless.
The Alan Parsons Project: Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976). A passage based on some Edgar Allan Poe's writings, narrated by Orson Welles.
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Sometimes, songwriters themselves want us to pay attention to the lyrics.... sometimes not. See shoegazing, for instance. Obviously, lyrics are not the most important thing here. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that a shoegaze song doesn't have a certain message.
As for non-English songs, sometimes you only need to understand the title or a few lines to "get the message". For instance, listen to the following song. All you need to know is what chorus says: "
take me high, take me higher". I won't translate the rest of the lyrics (for the moment). First, because they're not that important. Second, because I'm too lazy. But it doesn't matter, you will surely "grasp the feeling":
Band
Odio París (which means "
I hate Paris",
):
Geometría coaxial ("
Coaxial Geometry", 2016).