This masterpiece from 2012 is quite difficult to put my finger on solidly. It features the vocals of Damian Wilson; and, for those that know him, that is a huge deal. This guy can sing ridiculously well. However, the lyrics are what really grabbed me because they are so facetious and ironic. This album, “I Am Anonymous”, is about us. It’s about all the different battles we fight with other humans, and it covers battles fought from our childhood to our adulthood. In other words, this album hits close to home. Wait, it does more than that: It punches you in the gut, and gives you a swirly for good measure.

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1. Stalled Armageddon

Confusing lyrics? Yes! Headspace’s debut album features some of the most disorienting lyrics I’ve ever seen, and I know it was done on purpose. This album addresses the very disorientation that one feels while reading the lyrics: The cold helplessness of greater powers taking advantage of the little people. “Stalled Armageddon” starts things off with a blast of adrenaline, and also with a huge dose of confusion. “Chains on gates into Babylon/ Fear salvation leads to hell/ People that stand in different corners/ They know now – they know now.” In relation to the great powers in this world, we can feel helpless. They can confuse, mislead, and even kill us. Headspace uses the analogy of a great war to draw us in and make us feel even more desperate here. As the war between human minds begins, the undertaker is quite busy. There is never a thought to the good of humanity; just an obsession with getting ahead or controlling others. Can we finally stall this Armageddon?  Is this devastation forever?

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2. Fall of America

“The great people fly high/ Greatness also flies by”. Headspace leaps head first into social commentary here: Tyrants keep us from greatness, they say. As a people, we are heading for a war, but we can’t even understand what we read. We can’t see what’s going on beneath it all. Slowly, even the stalwart allow themselves to be tempted: Even the strong eventually allow themselves to be purchased. Freedom lovers are traitors: Enslavers are kings.  Power always corrupts.

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3. Soldier

This may be my favorite song on the album. This ballad has so much power, as it begins the more obvious use of war as an analogy for human relationships and battles, while also referencing the wasteful wars waged by the US currently. This soldier is melancholy, but hopeful. He hopes that, since he has chosen such a revered occupation, he will be loved. He will be valued. He feels that he must do something to have any value in others’ eyes. He feels he must “lay my body down with my companions” just to feel wanted and respected.  But what he has chosen to do in his pursuit of respect has become his downfall and his bane. He and his companions just want to get out of there!  What did they make him give?  How much of himself is required?

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4. Die With A Bullet

In steps this amazing song: The Soldier has come home, but now all he thinks about is killing. He’s bought into the propaganda and lies about being all he can be, and now aggression is all he feels. He’s going to die with a bullet in him, and it’s all for the greater good, right? Or is it to fulfill someone else’s plan? He can’t relate. He can’t be a good father or husband. He thought he would be respected, but now he’s just used. Throw those meat bags at the front line: Let them take a bullet for the greed of the powers that be. Is this really life? Is this really the way it should be?  He’s sure he’ll die with a bullet in his head, but, in some ways, he longs for it.

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5. In Hell’s Name

Our soldier continues to ponder life and the living.  More and more, he is using life to live in hell’s name.  “There’s nothing I can say or can do wrong/ Now there’s nothing I can say I haven’t done”.  This poor soldier has been forced to do unthinkable things, and now nothing seems wrong.  Relativism at its worse is infiltrating everyday life, and more and more we’re trying our own paths to try and find happiness.  What happens?  We do things we shouldn’t, and we end up shaming the very concept of “life”.  We end up living in hell’s name instead of benefiting mankind.  We end up being used, shamed, poor excuses for human beings that continue the loss as we keep living.  “Hold on, don’t tear down/ Our loss from living grows”.  Are we wasting our lives?  Are we better off dead than to continue tearing down life itself?  As we continue in moral ambiguity, we are dismantling reality around us.

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6. Daddy Fucking Loves You

Wow. Headspace comes out with both barrels on this track, and destroys any sense of innocence. Innocence, that is, that simply covers an agenda or lie. We’ve been fed propaganda. We’ve bought the lies. We’ve set standards up for ourselves that are insurmountable; all based on ideals that may not even be real. The Soldier did the same. He tries to build himself up, but he does it for his family. For his daughter. But he can never be what he hopes, because his standards are perfection. They’re inhuman.

And here we are thinking that our children or peers will not love or accept us unless we fulfill a certain standard, but that standard is just in our heads. Or, rather, it is in our heads, but the powers-that-be manipulate that. They take our sincerest desires and try to utilize them for their own greed and power-hungry agendas. We’ve bought the propaganda. Can’t we just love our children? We don’t have anything to prove to them. They just want…us. Yet, on and on we trudge through the muck of deceit and lies, convinced that what we do will earn us love and value. And, while we aren’t looking, others begin manipulating those we love with one simple phrase: Remember, “Daddy fucking loves you”.  How far should our love go?

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7. Invasion

This track is probably the clearest of all the songs on this album. Invasion. The city holds such allure for some people in the country, as it is described as the place for social, financial, and physical health. The big city is a place to belong and to learn what life is really like. Invasion.

“Invaded our blood/ Invaded with sin/ Invaded from within/ Don’t you see they’re taking us?” The Criminal Nation manipulates the minds of the young: They promise peace, love, wealth, and status. Their plan, however, is to possess the minds of the next generation. And now, it’s too late. The youth are gone as they’ve been brainwashed: They’re gone as the plan has taken effect without our knowledge. Invasion. “All I see, all I see is invasion”.

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8. The Big Day

Here, at the end, we get a huge shift in perspective. Based on what seems to be the 9/11 attacks, we get a view of the mind of this suicidal fanatic. The soldier in the album starts his journey because of this track, and so the album seems to be very cyclical, possibly moving in reverse; as every time we hear the end of the album, the whole thing starts over again. These things will never change: This ridiculous pretentiousness means nothing. We are told that certain acts give us value, but nothing could be further from the truth. The big day is here.  The next generation is lost.  Innocence is gone.

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Spotlight Conclusion

Headspace has hit upon some very personal revelations here. This album is about a soldier and a war, but it isn’t. It’s about us. It’s about our anonymity. We are not known anymore. We’ve lost a little bit of humanity here. Our society sets up standards for us, and we set them up as well. We strive to be valued and loved, but that value and love is actually found in much more natural and organic relationships. We strive to impress or be worthy of our kids’ affections, but all they want is us.

At the same time, all of this is being manipulated by the powers-that-be. They use us as pawns in a game, promising that we will finally get that sense of value and worth. They know the basic desires of our hearts, and find ways to make us blind in the pursuit of them. We are told for whom and with whom to fight. We are told who to be and what to dream. Yet, if we could see the other side of the conflict, we would find our foes are in the same situation: manipulation, deceit, and desperation.  Both sides are devastated, used, and unhappy in their pursuit of the idols set up by society and government. It’s a never-ending cycle, and it will be this way til Christ comes.

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