PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
That being said, I've never considered Thom a great lyricist. I think Matt Berninger writes in a similar style to Thom, but does it much better.
I don't see the Berninger-Yorke comparison either. Berninger's songs usually sound like they're written at 1:00 in the morning after he's been drinking for a while and at a bar or a party or even just sitting at home thinking. It gives it a sort of broken narrative feel: he remembers specific moments from random points that give him an emotive reaction.Thom's major strength as a lyricist, I think, lies in the ambiguity of his existential angst. Berninger, since Dalton mentioned him, tends to have a fairly recognizable vantage point in mind for his expressions of malaise, but Thom's is usually wide open to interpretation. Nude and Karma Police are notable examples; they both could be broad political statements or conversations with oneself. Then you have songs like Videotape and Pyramid Song, which are almost like conversations with another incarnation of oneself.
Yorke, to me, is tougher to describe. A lot of his lyrics seem broader, without that kind of narrative. They're much more random. They're usually trying to describe a state of mind or a feeling, without that specific reality to latch on to. He would never say he was up all night reading the Dictionary or that he remembers someone pissing in a sink.
Berninger is probably my favorite lyricist. Yorke's pretty good, though I don't think about his lyrics too much when I think of him. His "thing," for lack of a better term, is his singing and melodies, to me anyway.