You know those songs where you've memorised all the words by heart and there's just something intensely satisfying about singing along in your head (or out loud, I guess) once you've cracked them? I find songs with a distinctive narrative or from an interesting perspective normally lend themselves well to this, rather than lots of ooh yeah/take it to the bridge type stuff.
There's probably a concise German term for this feeling.
Scott Walker - Jackie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUS1XDIIhTEThe lyrics are just so gloriously ostentatious, each verse more ridiculous than the last and there's so much sass in the delivery. My French isn't good enough to compare the original, I'm sure some of it might have been altered in translation but if that's added to the quirkiness of the English version, I like it.
Harry Nilsson - Think About Your Troubles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guqFqcV4Po0From the heartbreakingly sweet animated film
The Point!, essentially an uplifting rumination on the cycle of life, very easy to memorise. A potential for the 'funeral songs' thread too.
Tomahawk - God Hates a Coward:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTd8-UZEf64After about fifty million listens I think I've finally worked out the lyrics to this. It's so deliciously nasty but there are some quite poetic turns of phrase in there (as with the rest of the album).
Honourable mention: as kids my brother and I used to record songs from the radio onto a Fisher-Price cassette player and then replay them until we had all the lyrics down in a big exercise book. Gangster's Paradise was a notably rewarding one to do, from what I can remember.
Does anyone else get this? What are yours?