An Interesting Question

This question came up with some of my friends: what is more important in a song the lyrics or the melody? It was fascinating to hear the different answers. I ask the question because I can't really decide myself. For me, listening to a song the first time is like meeting a new person. The melody is like that first impression. It gives you a certain feeling through its sound and rhythm. Then you get to know the song better, learning the lyrics and figuring out what they mean to you and how they connect with your life, hence making the song your "friend" in a sense. Being a singer and a lover of words I'm naturally more drawn to the lyrics. But then again, the melody is what catches me. I wouldn't want to get to know the song without a good melody. So I guess it is the difference between me loving a song and just liking a song is the lyrics. If I love the lyrics then I can fully love the song. I hope you ponder this question for yourself. It really is interesting to think about.

Not many people I know really enjoy Los Campesinos, but I do. It took me a while to get used to the lead singer's voice, but they have some of my favorite lyrics of any band. 

Here are the lyrics to "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" (favorite lines in bold):
You can listen to the song here

By the light of the LED display of a VCR recorder
You kiss my neck, I whisper in your ear, "this is my downfall"
As you squint and you grimace, we both know your heart's not in it

By the glow of a thousand fireflies in a travelodge en-suite:
They think the future's bright as halogen, we know it's pretty bleak
And I'm trying to be sexy, biting at the air that falls in front of me.

Your telegrams are more and more less detailed by the day
And all the characters are strangers and the pubs have different names
I tell a joke that I'd like to meet them but they loathe me and I hate them back

Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Fondness makes the absence longer
Length loses my interest, I'm a realist, I'm insatiable
Swapped counting days until I fly, with hours before your reply

(Chorus)
You said he got his teeth fixed
I'm gonna break them
I've got a heart on fire
He said he's got his sights set
On getting to you
I've got a fist on fire

You feel terrified at the thought of being left behind
Of losing everybody, the necessity of dying
Oh, WE KID OURSELVES THERE'S FUTURE IN THE FUCKING,
BUT THERE IS NO FUCKING FUTURE
I'm just practising my accents, picking at old sutures

I taught myself the only way to vaguely get along in love
Is to like the other slightly less than you get in return
I keep feeling like I'm being undercut

Charlotte says, "It's more constructive than the one in Canada,
When you got drunk, 
Ate loads of crisps
And threw up by a football pitch"
I know it is, 
And really that's what worries me,
I feel like I should 
Hurt.

(Chorus)
I cannot emphasise enough that my body 
Is a badly designed, poorly put together vessel,
Harbouring these diminishing, so-called 'vital organs'
Hope my heart goes first, 
I HOPE MY HEART GOES FIRST!

And
We are beautiful, 
We are doomed.