text: Lyrically, the band's style has been described as coming from "the school of Cole Porter, favouring caustic wit over trivial personal problems,... achingly clever lyrics seesaw between superficial gloss, profound sentiment and the incomprehensibly bizarre". Repeated lyrical motifs have become a distinct feature on recent albums. On "My Baby's Taking Me Home" of Lil' Beethoven (2002), the song title is repeated 104 times, with no other words used, other than a spoken interlude. Similarly, on the same album, "Your Call Is Very Important To Us", uses a corporation style call-hold message: "Your call is very important to us.  Please hold" which is then sung with some additional words: "At first she said your call is very important to us, then she said please, please hold." The only other lyrics in the song are "Red light", "Green light", "I'm Getting Mixed Signals" and "Sorry, I'm Going To Have To Put You Back On Hold". These elements are layered with a simple piano line to create a highly textured effect.
  The vocal sound on the single "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" was criticised as "stylised". This may be because the song was written without any regard for the vocal style of Russell Mael. Ron Mael has explained: