“And though fish are not animals, they do have feelings”. If something as dull as this made you chuckle, this album is for you. It certainly worked for me. Headache is one of these weird projects that appear out of nowhere, release one album, and then disappear again. Without anything comparable to it, you are left hopelessly wanting for more.
Headache is a project produced by Vegyn, who has also worked for Frank Ocean and Travis Scott, which combines text-to-speech AI voices with dreamy synths and ambient trip-hop beats. This mixture doesn’t only sound weird, it intentionally is. While performed by AI, the lyrics are actually handwritten by Francis Hornsby Clark, an author shrouded in mystery. This uncanny clash of human emotion with artificial expression becomes the guiding theme for the debut album The Head Hurts but the Heart Knows the Truth.
While the text-to-speech voice sounds like its straight out of an 2014 mlg meme shitpost, the character of headache expresses feelings of loneliness, alienation and existential dread. “It’s the drivel of a constant monologue of somebody that’s so self-obsessed but can’t stop themselves”, Vegyn explains himself in an interview with Crack magazine and further characterises Headache as “this white, upper-middle class, almost aristocratic English dude with a real chip on his shoulder and very little self-awareness”.
This might be setup rather humorous, and large portions of the lyrics clearly are meant as a joke yet, the themes of estrangement, longing, and existentialism still come from a place of sincerity. Partly relatable, partly absurd, the project is defined by contrasts, like the AI voice clashing with the sad tinge of the musical background. A constant, uncanny feeling that accompanies you when listening to the album, just to be interrupted by silly phrases like “I don’t talk English, I talk Toyota”.
Sonically, this album serves a sweet nostalgia that is akin to the ambient electronica of the 90s. Reminiscent of artists such as Boards of Canada or Massive Attack, Vegyn produces a masterclass of ambient trip-hop fusion. Floaty synths playfully develop around looped drums. While being able to capture an acute feeling of nostalgia, it yet somehow remains contemporary. Vegyn’s own modern touch is still very clear and present. Bridging both worlds into a novel sonic terrain is one of the strong points of this record.
Tracks like “Truisms 4 Dummies” and “Bucket Listener” create deeply emotional backdrops for the dull artificial voice to talk over. While the former propels the listener with a sense of carefree optimism with its upbeat synths and warm pads, the latter unfolds a sincere feeling of longing, regret and melancholic sentimentality. While these strong emotional evocations stand in diametrical contrast to the monotonous text-to-speech voice, they manage to humanise its artificial companion. It is an effective synergy that drives themes of introspection, identity and the human condition while simultaneously not taking itself too seriously.
Headache manages to exist within the in-between. A liminal, transitory space, between sarcasm and total sincerity, between artificial production and deeply human experientiality. The savvy mixture of feeling like you are completely on your own in life and the realisation “hey, I can still dance”.
The Head hurts but the Heart Knows the Truth points at the absurd. It reflects on the dull, monotonous, yet anxiety-ridden experiences of the everyday and how easily any sense of normality can be left behind. Listening to this album, you either start crying and have an existential crisis or laugh at the dumb jokes and superficial statements made. Maybe even both. Whatever your experience, this album does not belittle you for it. It embraces its own strange setup in a cathartic release of expression. Where things are allowed to be dumb and silly, while still carrying deep emotional baggage.
It is my personal reminder that not everything needs to make sense in life, that it is normal to feel like you are not. It encourages you to embrace the small absurdities of life whenever you can. Even if you feel like there is nothing to do, you can still dance.
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