Broken

awww i love this song! yay!

this song was written by Jay in response to the war on terrorism.

this is one of my favorite Jump songs...

and it's "With a dark and gentle kiss, from the mouth of blinding BLISS.."

just wanted to correct that because it's an awesome lyric

the lyrics here are wrong and one of my favorites is fairly hard to hear clearly in part due to Jay's lack of articulation. Using sound-enhancers it's easier much much easier to pick out, "fine with the birthing of malice, fine with degeneration, fine with the careless common stranger's reserve." Makes much more sense than the "curve of karma." lol "Callous" might also work instead of "careless," but then the line loses a bit of its literary meaning.

the "careless common stranger's reserve" is just a masterful piece of song-writing. In essence it refers to what one might stereotypically find on a busy New York City sidewalk with heavy pedestrian traffic... just a general feeling of isolation in a sea of other people and a sort of automatic unwillingness to engage others.

It includes two sets of what might be seen as oxymorons: careless -- reserve common -- stranger

beginning with the word "reserve"... from dictionary.com...

1) Something kept back or saved for future use or a special purpose. 2) The keeping of one's feelings, thoughts, or affairs to oneself. 3) Self-restraint in expression; reticence: “One feels it everywhere, a quality of reserve, something held back” (Rollene W. Saal). 4) Lack of enthusiasm; skeptical caution.

Using these definitions it's very difficult to see how "reserve" could ever be "careless." Reserve seems to be something you can only apply in a very specific or exact way -- that act of "holding back." (hence, the reason one might see it as an oxymoron) But, indeed, it's something that people quite often do in a careless way without even thinking about it when among strangers ("if I don't look at them... maybe they won't look at me...."). It's something people do without hesitation.

"Common" and "stranger" can be construed as oxymorons as well. "Common," is something that everyone experiences. From dictionary.com...

Common (1) Belonging equally to or shared equally by two or more; joint: common interests. (2) Of or relating to the community as a whole; public: for the common good. See Usage Note at mutual. (3) Widespread; prevalent.

Stranger:

n : anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found [syn: alien, unknown]

Common (there all the time, normal, regular, you have some sort of solid connection, etc.) v. Stranger (foreign, strange, unusual, no basis for understanding, etc.)

But, it's true... typically, everyday (in urban areas at least), strangers and being a stranger amongst a group of people you don't know is a common and normalized experience. It's also quite normal for strangers to maintain a distance -- a reserve -- and they do so not in a careful exacting manner, but they act that way with every other person who crosses their path.

careless common stranger's reserve.

Now those are lyrics! lol

I heard it as "careless calm of strangers' reserve" but "common strangers" sounds about right too - and you're right about the oxymorons then. Calm would go better with reserve, but only if you're not looking at those contrasts.