Maybe it’s just me, but I’m irritated by lyrics that don’t scan – specifically where the emphasis is awry.

You’ve written the music – and I’m assuming that generally it precedes the words – and you’re going to go to the trouble of recording it. Why, then, do you try and cram an ill-scanning word in instead of choosing another, better fitting one? Or, if the phrase is of such importance, save it intact for a tune where the emphasis fits the metre.

I mean, Kilimanjaro rising like Olympus above the Serrr-en-ge-tee` is kind of annoying, but I don’t listen to Toto much. My enjoyment of KT Tunstall’s great Other Side of the World, however, is definitely tempered because of her ty`-ered ex-cu-ses`. Del Amitri’s Nothing Ever Happens has four – four! – mangled words in as many minutes.

I know it sounds like a grumpy old man thing. Sorry about that. But to me, a lyric that truly doesn’t scan shows a lack of craft.