Critical Commentary Post One Week Ten

I am going to continue on with the idea that some songs cannot stand alone as poetry. I found another instance where I believe lyrics can stand alone. This would be the song "Dirty Paws" by the band Of Monsters and Men. These lyrics stand alone because of the language. Most songs have the bubble gum pop lyrics that have no substance to them or are based on some love story that results in the xyz plot. Of Monsters and Men is a band that situates themselves in a setting and place that is different from American song lyrics. This is an Icelandic band and the majority of their songs are Icelandic myths. This is why I think their songs can stand as poetry-the subject matter is interesting and their lines are interesting: "my head is an animal," or "the forest that once was green, was colored black by those killing machines." These seem interesting to me because there is so much to talk about. There is so much to discuss about the head being an animal, and the band uses this relation to move into the myth. But it isn't just the myth, it's that it's all in the head, so the head is the animal because it comes up with these myths. I just find the specificity and the subject matter different from the bubble gum pop of most Katy Perry or Britney Spears songs, and therefore, can stand alone as poetry.

"Jumping up and down the floor,
My head is an animal.
And once there was an animal,
It had a son that mowed the lawn.
The son was an ok guy,
They had a pet dragonfly.
The dragonfly it ran away
But it came back with a story to say.

Her dirty paws and furry coat,
She ran down the forest slope.
The forest of talking trees,
They used to sing about the birds and the bees.
The bees had declared a war,
The sky wasn't big enough for them all.
The birds, they got help from below,
From dirty paws and the creatures of snow.

And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes.
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines.
But she and her furry friends
Took down the queen bee and her men
And that's how the story goes,
The story of the beast with those four dirty paws."