What is Elizabeth singing?
One of the true “holy grails” of alternative music for many years, and probably the question Liz would most like journalists and fans to stop asking. She’s had a lot to say about it over the years, but has stopped short of actually revealing any lyrics, with few exceptions. Some of the lyrics on the earlier work—and definitely songs on Heaven or Las Vegas, Four-Calendar Café, Twinlights and Milk & Kisses—contained a lot of clearly understandable lyrics (and the song “Violaine” is actually English words sung backwards). Most of it is simply the by-product of the way Liz pronounces words or chooses to distort them and her grammar to suit to sound of the song or the melody. She has often used foreign words from other languages just for the way they sound or even look on paper, and has even resorted to singing the scientific names of butterflies (on the song “Melonella,” from Echoes In A Shallow Bay). Ultimately, it doesn’t much matter. It’s better to simply enjoy the music.
