Lyrics

I decided to start building a local lyrics database because I like the feature Apple Music (and others) have of showing lyrics synced to the music as you listen, and I wanted that for my own local music library.

It kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to put CDs in my little player and write down lyrics in WordPerfect as I listened, but now the music players can also show those lyrics to you in time with the music. It’s great!

To kickstart things I started with an open source tool called LRCGET which by default connects to the LRCLIB service, and started downloading lyrics for albums.

But quality is an issue. Mostly I’m dealing with lyrics that don’t have timing information, or the timing is off from my own CD rips. That’s fine, I can make minor corrections to match my own local tracks, or add timing info using LRCGET, which works pretty well even though it’s kind of buggy.

But there’s a bigger issue, and that’s with the quality and accuracy of the lyrics themselves. I know it’s crowd sourced and a free service, so I’ll limit my complaining. But I’ll also point out this hits the commercial services too, and worms its way into things like Apple Music. Sometimes the lyrics of songs really are weird, don’t make sense, or are spelled funny on purpose, but some of this goes way farther than that.

The first issue, and the more offensive to me, is censorship, or substitution of lyrics for “clean” tracks for the originals. I already think “radio-friendly” “clean” versions of songs shouldn’t exist, even if I understand why they do. But if Taylor Swift says “fuck you forever” I don’t want to see “- you forever” in the lyrics files. Because then I have to fix them.

The second, and more difficult, issue is bad transcriptions. Now I don’t know exactly how this happens but it is pervasive. It could be the label wrote things down funny, it could be that these are poor fan transcriptions. It could even be that I’m completely wrong and this is exactly what the artists wrote because they’re crazy (but I doubt it). But it can get pretty bad.

My favorite recent example is Purity Ring’s unlucky from the EP graves. There are several versions out there and they’re all wrong, particularly with the first verse.

The genius.com version goes like this¹:

Nobody helped, but you was right to be mad and cry
And now that you’re lying down, getting hit by the fireworks
You threw from the balcony, and they said we should go
Fortunes I couldn’t have, I kind of guessed anymore

The lrclib version is even funnier:

Nobody helped, but you was right to be mud and cried
And now a chill laying down, getting it by the fireworks
You threw from the balcony, and they said we should go
For two good in half, I kinda have guessed anymore

Now if you listen to the actual song you’ll find that it starts with them getting kicked out of a hotel. I submit to you that these lyrics, transcribed by me, are much closer to correct:

Nobody yelled, but she was right to be mad and crying
On a chair lying down, getting hit by the fireworks you
Threw from the balcony. And they said we should go
Fourteenth floor couldn’t have our kind of guest anymore

I have only two questions if you took the time to listen

1. Which version actually makes sense as a story?
2. Which version sounds the most like the lyrics when you listen?

Because to my ears the answer to both is the third version. Mine. But the genius.com version is what you see in iTunes.

And if Purity Ring would like to weigh in I’d be happy to correct my interpretation to whatever they say is right.

Posted on 24 July 2025