When I was in high school, I used to write down the lyrics to all the songs I loved in my “lyrics notebook.” I would listen to each song, straddling the play and the pause buttons, trying to decipher everything I heard. I pored over a word I couldn’t understand, whether it was a fuzzy line, or a whispered vocal that got lost at the end of a verse. But those days are over thanks to the Power Lyrics iPhone app (99 cents).
In less than a minute’s time, I was able to put to rest a conundrum which I had for over a decade. Now I know that the mystery word in Liz Phair’s “Dance of the Seven Veils”
is “platter,” not “bladder” or “pattern” or whatever else I had guessed before (bladder?!). In addition to solving the puzzle of this song, I can now find the lyrics for every song in my iPod collection by searching via albums, songs, artists, or playlists.
Plus, there is a hidden gem of a feature on this iPhone app I almost missed, but I’m so glad I didn’t. When you first enter the iPhone app, you can choose “Lyrics” or “Search.” I assumed the latter pertained exclusively and directly to the former, but instead, the search button allows you to enter a word, and in turn, receive a list of song titles containing the selected word. Perfect for a themed-mix CD, or if you’re trying to track down a song you can’t remember the name of, but you do recall the key words in the repetitive chorus.
