Here to post another line that I think about a lot "Through the eyes of machines, viewed emaculate scenes that have already passed me by"
Not a one-liner, but as someone who loves apocalyptic imagery in music, not many artists are better than mwY: “scenes from old air raid on screens in blue dusk perfumed neighborhoodsgraveyards the breath feels like flies in my lungs, voice like ambulance sirens whose light floods the ground (praying mantis spreads arms said the lines of whose palm?) skyline shifting like clouds became airplane descends fade to scenes on the ground human foreheads all smashed, foreign cars upside down, insect mouths open wide I stared down a huge insect bright red-glowing eyes, does it feel wrong to say a thought metastasized? legs on both highway sides, said insect was mechanized!”
I like to think of Pale Horses as the events leading up to the apocalypse, with Untitled being the aftermath.
I think that i put Joanna Newsom on the same level, and her lyrics are actually fairly similar to Aaron’s in terms of the imagery employed. There was a time I’d put John Darnielle up there, although idk if he still is for me. Craig Finn is another. The guy from Silo’s Choice also writes some great apocalypse songs. I have to delineate between hip-hop lyricists and indie/rock lyricists, personally.
aarons lyrics dont make any sense to anyone but himself like 75% of the time. theyre good because theyre not boring.
idk, most of his lyrics make sense to me, the only album I really struggle to make sense of at times is the Untitled.
top 3 in no order is aaron weiss, christian holden, and a vaccant spot once held by the lyricist of the disowned band
can't think of a modern lyricist whose worked on the scale aaron's worked on over the last three mwY records, especially ten stories. he's one of the best ever just for that imo all of my favorite lyricists are canadian except for him. something like 1. gord downie 2. tie between joni mitchell and leonard cohen 3. aaron weiss?
oh wait, paddy mcaloon, the guy from prefab sprout, i may rate him slightly as a lyricist over aaron. but only slightly