Puberliefde scherp verwoord

James Mercer, voorman van de Amerikaanse The Shins, zingt in het schitterende liedje Pink Bullets over een fatale puberliefde. Het nummer, afkomstig van Chutes Too Narrow, is een ode aan die o zo herkenbare periode waarin je als tiener helemaal begeesterd kunt raken van die ene vrouw. Over die verwarring schijft Mercer vol zelfspot: "Since then it's been a book you read in reverse. So you understand less as the pages turn. Or a movie so crass and awkardly cast. That even I could be the star.". Een rake tekst van een band die sowieso zeer de moeite waard is om te volgen, omdat ze de perfecte popliedjes lijken te maken.

Hier de tekst in zijn geheel:

PINK BULLETS - THE SHINS

I was just bony hands as cold as a winter pole
You held a warm stone out new flowing blood to hold
Oh what a contrast you were
To the brutes in the halls
My timid young fingers held a decent animal.

Over the ramparts you tossed
The scent of your skin and some foreign flowers
Tied to a brick
Sweet as a song
The years have been short but the days were long.

Cool of a temperate breeze from dark skies to wet grass
We fell in a field it seems now a thousand summers passed
When our kite lines first crossed
We tied them into knots
And to finally fly apart
We had to cut them off.

Since then it's been a book you read in reverse
So you understand less as the pages turn
Or a movie so crass
And awkardly cast
That even I could be the star.

I don't look back as much as a rule
And all this way before murder was cool
But your memory is here and I'd like it to stay
Warm light on a winter day.

Over the ramparts you tossed
The scent of your skin and some foreign flowers
Tied to a brick
Sweet as a song
The years have been short but the days go slowly by
Two loose kites falling from the sky
Drawn to the ground and an end to flight.