Personally my favorite lyricist is John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. What strikes me about them is the "rawness" they seem to have. They run the gamut of human emotion: from a sort of naïve optimism to soul-crushing cynicism and depression. He also manages to encompass these emotions in some of the most striking imagery I've heard in song lyrics. Here's the first verse from his Spent Gladiator 2: Like a spent gladiator,
It's very powerful, raw, music and I encourage you to given it a chance (some people are turned off by his somewhat jarring voice at first, but I think it adds to the air of desperation he tries to convey).
If you decide to give him a listen, I'd strongly recommend you start with his album Tallahassee, which follows the story of a couple whose lives crumble around them. Crawling in the Colosseum dust,
Who can count on his remaining limbs,
All the people he can trust.
Like the one who stands behind him,
Cheering him on.
Ecstatic when he stands defiant,
Wild with abandon when he's gone.