Kinetics & One Love - "Sign Language" (Track Review)

Nogen gange hører man et nummer, som vækker så mange følelser i en - musikalks, emotionelt, eller blot ved selve nummerets væsen - at man får lyst til at introducere det til alle man kender. Dette er jeg ofte ude for, så derfor vil jeg nu åbne op for bloggens nye tiltag "Track Reviews", hvor jeg ikke anmelder en hel plade, men et enkelt nummer.

Kinetics & One Love er en duo fra New York. De mødte hinanden da de gik på Cornell University, der er et af USA mest anerkendte Ivy League universiteter, hvor de begge studerede med fokus på musik. Før da, var One Love både Club DJ og trommerslager i et indie rockband, og havde klaveret som sit foretrukne instrument.
Som de selv siger, så var der så mange ekstremt nørdede elever på skolen, som ikke lavede andet end at drikke te og spille violin, og de to var nærmest de eneste "cool guys" der var, så at de fandt sammen skete ganske automatisk. One Love var altså trænet i musik teori og klassiske kompositioner, men da var da han mødte Kinetics, der introducerede ham for hele hiphop universet, at han begyndte at interessere sig for at lave beats.
Det var faktisk Kinetics & One Love der skrev B.o.B's "Airplanes". One Love producerede grundbeatet, og Kinetics skrev omkvædet. Eftersom det blev et ganske enormt hit, arbejder de to pt. som sangskrivere til store artister hos blandt andet Atlantic Records og Warner Music Group.

De har dog også udgivet noget selv. Kinetics EP'en fra 2008, Fading Back To Normal EP'en fra 2009, og en ny håndfuld numre fra 2010. Blandt disse numre er "Sign Language", som er et virkelig fantastisk nummer, hvor One Love's kendskab til klassiske kompositioner viser sit væsen i beatet, og Kinetics virkelig brænder igennem som historiefortæller. Og så har de fået sangerinden Wynter Gordon til at synge omkvædet, og hendes super fine og følelsesladte stemme er intet mindre end blændende. Lad os tage et lyt - og læs med nedenunder.



I wanna show you that I care, but I don't have the nerves
I wanna say I love you, but i can't find the words
I wish that you would know how I really felt all of this time
But no matter what I do, you can't see the signs

He was an average teen /
He partied often and he sagged his jeans /
Sat in the very back of the class so he could nap and dream /
And fantasize about the girl he was obsessed with /
The one who stole his heart and always kept it /
'Cause every since the seventh grade she was always standin' at the center stage /
But every time he tried to talk to her she went a step away /
And though she never spoke to him it didn't matter /
'Cause Billy never liked the chit chatter /
So what if a little passive? To him she was attractive /
He could sense a masser personality perfectly by the way she acted /
Plus she wrote poems for the paper every month /
It was the lines on the page that had him falling in love /
But he never told his friends, they would say that he was crazy /
So no one ever found out that Billy liked Amy /
He just gracefully endured being blatantly ignored /
But sooner or later Billy wouldn't take it any more"

I wanna show you that I care, but I don't have the nerves I wanna say I love you, but I can't find the words I wish that you would know how I really felt all of this time
But no matter what I do, you can't see the signs

He was an average teen /
He partied often and he sagged his jeans /
Sat in the very back of the class so he could nap and dream /
And fantasize about the girl he was obsessed with /
The one who stole his heart and always kept it /
So he's taking his chances, day after day of wasted advances /
He was always lonely without a date for the dances /
Till he decided that he would try to do something bold /
He would make his feelings known but reciting of a poem /
Like the poems she was publishing every month in the paper /
He grabbed the pen and pad and then he labored
Sat and he crafted it in and then he practiced it, it had to have it immaculate /
But half of it just ended up scribbled in trash baskets /
Until he finally mastered it and recited it perfectly /
Yo this was a life and death emergency /
But you can't be nervous B, you could risk it all /
You need to stand tall and approach her in the hall /
Deep breath /
Yo what up tuts, I'm at the entrance of your palace /
And I think that I've been starrin' at Aurora Borealis /
You shine so bright that you could light up the sky /
Even Columbus with a compass would get lost in your eyes /
.......But her reaction was absurd /
All she did was stare back without saying a single word /
Gave him a weird look, she tried saying something with her hands /
but she couldn't cause she was carrying books /
But that was all that it took, Billy was too crushed /
Had to run away so nobody could see the tears rush /
For the rest of the week he locked himself in his apartment /
Cause he didn't have the strength to face the world so broken-hearted /
After seven days in darkness, got a letter in the mail /
But before he even looked it he let that ship sail /
He was too concerned with all the sadness in his life /
So instead of the letter opener he grabbed a kitchen knife"

I wanna show you that I care, but I don't have the nerves
I wanna say I love you, but I can't find the words
I wish that you would know how I really felt all of this time
But no matter what I do, you can't see the signs

She was far from the average teen /
The quiet type who never had a scene /
Studied often and wrote poems for the school magazine /
She had a little secret and she always kept it /
There was a boy that she was obsessed with /
So when she wrote a poem for the school paper every month /
Every line on the page was dedicated to her crush /
But she never told her friends, they would say that it was silly /
So no one ever found out that Amy liked Billy /
Till the day that Billy stopped her by her locker during school /
But she couldn't understand it and responded like a fool /
And gave him a weird look, she tried doing sign language /
But she couldn't 'cause she was carrying all the books /
See, even though that Amy was equally obsessed /
She was too embarrassed to tell him that she was born deaf /
Avoided him at school but to make her love known /
She would leave him little signs through the lines in her poems /
So she sent one to his home after seven days passed /
'Cause it seemed like Billy wasn't showing up to class /
So she's going home confused, trapped in the worse mood
Flipping on the TV to a tragic story on the news /
It was a picture of your average teen, all it said was this /
"Local teen suicidal with a knife to his wrist" /
At the scene where he died was a letter never read /
From a girl named Amy and it said....

....I wanna show you that I care, but I don't have the nerves I wanna say I love you, but I can't find the words
I wish that you would know how I really felt all of this time
But no matter what I do, you can't see the signs

Can't see the signs
Can't see the signs
No matter what I do
No matter what I do
No matter what I do
No matter what I do you can't see the signs

I mine øjne er det her simpelthen en mageløst fortælling. Den måde Kinetics bygger historien op på, introducerer karaktererne og lader os forstå deres forhold, er uhyggelig virkeligt og beskrevet med en sublim sans for detalje. Især den sidste halvdel af tredje vers, hvor det går op for os at Amy har dette handicap, vender hele historien på hovedet, og når man til sidst finder ud af, at omkvædet rent faktisk er det digt hun skriver til Billy, som aldrig når at læse det før han tager sit eget liv, er en klump i halsen eller rejste hår på armen evident. Når man hører omkvædet fjerde og sidste gang, efter at have fundet ud af at hun er døv, giver linjen "I wanna say I love you, but I can't find the words" pludselig en helt anden betydning, og først da bliver den sørgelige ende på historien nærmest ubærlig.

For mig er det her nummer ganske enkelt brilliant skruet sammen. Kinetics historie er en af de bedst fortalte jeg har hørt i længere tid. Faktisk tror jeg ikke, at jeg har hørt så flot en tragisk kærlighedssang siden Immortal Techniques "You Never Know", og det siger vist en del. Ingen tvivl om, at den vækkede en masse følelser hos mig.

Moralen med historien? - Hvid du har noget du vil sige til en, så sig det nu, inden det er for sent.