Song Review: Kenna - "Daylight"

By From The Burn

So I'm technically the film guy at The Old Shack, but my inaugural review will be a song because frankly I can't stop listening to this track and I feel that it's no longer fair to hog it's awesomeness anymore, it's time to share. Whether I'm waking up to it in full "I-Home" glory or it's helping me get through my perilous L.A. commute, this anthem rocks all of my six senses with glorious "classic pop" vigor.

I, like a lot of people, first became aware of Kenna from his appearance in Malcolm
Gladwell's peculiar best seller, Blink. For those of you who haven't read the book, there is a whole chapter devoted to Kenna's journey of being on the verge of mainstream success and ultimately failing to break through, despite unanimous critical praise. The book claims that it was because of his "too all over the map" sound that made him hard to market as well as his own shortcomings of not trusting the people that were behind him that contributed to his downfall. Kenna's inability to find his "Tipping Point" with his first album as well as being dropped from labels didn't stop him from coming back with a long delayed follow up album that in my humble opinion unrepentantly blows his previous outing into sand grain sized smithereens.

"Daylight" is the first track on "Make Sure They See My Face," and it seems Kenna brought in his clean up to bat leadoff, because he swings for the fences with this
track and it lands clear in the upper deck. It was Kenna's list of influences that first made me curious about him, U2, Talking Heads , Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Weezer, The Police, and David Bowie to name a few. If we indie rockers, who fall under "Generation Me" are honest with ourselves, we know we all are closet Michael Jackson fans. We all owned The Chronic and serenaded girls with Jodeci and Boys To Men songs before we were detached from our pain-bodies by Pablo Honey, Nevermind, and Siamese Dream , but to completely deny our pop roots, is to simply deny our essence, and Kenna makes no apology for his Pop/Hip Hop sensibilities or hides his New Wave/Glam Rock/Heavy Funk/Alternative Folk influences, and it's this reason why I think he may be the first artist to truly capture the essence and story of our generation.

You literally do go on a genre-bending journey on both his albums. One second your listening to Keane, the next Talking Heads, oh, there's Radiohead, Bloc Party, Daft Punk, Depeche Mode and hey, even Justin Timberlake (c'mon you know you like him), but with "Make Sure They See My Face", there is a bit more cohesion, at least thematically, than the previous effort, which may just be what Kenna needs to achieve the recognition and fame he deserves even if it takes a little bit to catch fire, ala The Postal Service and MGMT (who are both bands that are equally hard to categorize). "Daylight" is the opus of the album and it sets the stage perfectly before sending us through an odyssey of lost love, disappointment, and redemption. Starting like a Philip Glass score, it then launches into Coldplayesque riff that sets a light show ablaze in your grey matter.

From there on it's like any other great anthem, only it packs an emotional punch that I can get behind. For me the song is about getting ourselves out of a state of self loathing which I think is one of the main messages that my generation needs to hear, so that alone gets me excited, but the arrangement of the song brings the message home in an emotional way that leaves an impression. My favorite part of the song is the bridge that comes towards the end,

We all wanna rise
Seconds, seconds they fly by, yeah
We all wanna rise
We all wanna see light
We wanna see light

These words showcase the commonalities we all share, and it's these words that symbolize why Kenna's sound works. He's an Ethiopian born American that not only
symbolizes the crock pot of cultural influences that reflect our landscape today but also the musical influences that many of us grew up with. With this song in particular, Kenna demonstrates why we all love music, that no matter the sound, well constructed lyrics and melody hold the key to what connects us all...our souls.