I've been working on this one for a few weeks and I'm quite enjoying it, so I guess I want to make sure the lyrics are just as good as the music (I usually consider lyrics a bit of a weak point in my songs).

I've been trying to write more folky acoustic stuff since I noticed a lot of listings ask for things a bit like Bon Iver so if you're wondering about genre I'm going in that direction - though this is not necessarily a Bon Iver emulation lyrics wise.

Also, I've gone overboard a bit on imagery in the past so I tried to keep the train stuff to one verse, hopefully not too blatant this time. I'm always interested to see if my message got across so I'd like it if some of you told me what you think the song is about. It tends to help me work out which things I need to be more clear on etc.

Anyway here they are please let me know your opinions:


You'll
Be on my mind
From time to time
For the rest of my life

Seems,
Strange to me,
That so many hide,
Don't know why people feel so ashamed

Since goodbye
We both felt lighter 
So lets push restart 


We'd
Been ignoring the stop signs
They'd been calling the last stop, 
A little too long

Time to get off, 
Someone remind me 
Where
We first got on

Since goodbye
We both felt lighter 
So lets push restart 
Standing by
Snuffs out that fire
So lets push restart

Hi Tess.. Happy Holidays!

I know I've commented on your lyrics before. Your writing style is much more cryptic than I'm used to. Obviously, if it's working for you and you are meeting your goals, no need to change your style.

I read these lyrics a few times and I don't know what the song is about. For me, if I had a song called "Push Restart", I would have the storyline around it a lot clearer-- e.g. a couple is having relationship problems of some kind and the singer wants to restart.

Best,
Casey

Hi Tess, I'm loving Casey's reaction as this is cryptic in some ways and hope I can help.

Lyrics ( to me ) HAVE to fall into 2 categories.

1) Telling a story
or
2) Describing something

The reason I say HAVE to is because if a lyric tries to go for a story (1) but spends whole verses trying to describe something(2) we end up with cryptic, vague and the awkward reaction of a listener feeling un-involved - One foot in one boat, one in another boat and splash!

So I say, pick one of the above methods only as the goal, I feel it really takes the weight and struggle away.
Describing songs are fab, loads of imagery etc, way of saying things. Story ones, well just got to have a good tale I guess with past , present and future.

I think this is what you are seeking when I read you say struggling with words etc , you got the words, what you are not doing is picking your aim (Description Song or Story Song) first ( I feel )


No expert of course, I just love lyric writing and this is how I work, might help to pass along as an idea

Sedge