Some for me are when they do an uplifting key change at the end (a phenomenon which has existed for decades,) when they use too much tape wear effect to make it purposefully warbly for no good reason, when they lower the pitch of a singer’s voice by an octave, and when the song just ends with no finality like the tape was cut (unless it’s part of a progressive rock album.)

  • Eye-rollingly uncreative lyric choices. Rhyming pairs like “fire/pyre” “higher/desire” “fly/sky” - or tacking filler words like “yeah” or “tonight” to the end of a line.

    That’s just a few examples off the top of my head, but there are tons of lyrical cliches I’ve heard that make me grind my teeth when I hear them.