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Poetry is not only a matter of written words in collections of poems; poetry is also an oral enterprise, and one of its main expressions is the song lyrics. Here, the words are not only oral, they are also interacting with another art form: music. Alongside other circumstances, this orality and intermediality has meant that lyrics generally have not received neither sufficient nor adequate scholarly attention from a literary point of view. The article takes its point of departure in a close listening of a single song: “Tindrer” (‘Sparkle’) by contemporary Danish post-rock band Under Byen (‘Under the City’). The analysis seeks to demonstrate the complex and multi-faceted production of meaning in the song, and it outlines a possible way of handling this. The four verses of the song (and the four stanzas of the text) serve as a launch pad for reflections on numerous topics such as musical and linguistic metaphor, rhythm and meter, voice, text versions etc. First, the status of lyrics in academic research is discussed, and also the methodological challenges connected to undertaking analysis such as the one in question.

We Are Not Robots, so to Speak. Digressive Drive through the Multipronged Fallible Art of Nikolaj Zeuthen As a singer, songwriter, comic artist, lyricist, novelist and playwright, Nikolaj Zeuthen has developed a characteristic artistic expression, which formally as well as thematically evokes a fundamental impression of fallibility: He sings out of tune, his comics are slipshod and the human beings who populate his universe struggle with everything from unemployment and receiving disappointing presents to deep and existential doubts and fears. The interrelations in relationships, between family members and between people in general are saturated with awkward, embarrassing, shameful feelings. As the genre of lyrics – in a literary aspect – is strongly underexposed, the article is centered around Zeuthen’s work within the frame of his band, Skammens Vogn: the interplay between words, voice and tones.