Head On

I might be wrong, but I feel like this song is about a clinically depressed person.

"You don't even recognize the stranger It's you from before": His illness has made him a completely different person, now he's sad and hopeless all the time, while back then he was 'normal'.

"There's a hole in your head At least that's what everybody's guessing It's why you're always misread It's why you sleep but you never feel rested"

People misread him, they don't know he's depressed and therefore don't understand why he does the things he does and so think "he has a hole in his head", therefore that he's dumb or a bit crazy.The part about sleeping without feeling restless is a typical symptom of depression; you always feel restless and tired, even if you sleep enough.

"Hold on to your heart Hold it high above flood waters Hold on to your heart Never let nobody drag it under Hold on to your heart Even when your body's bitter Hold on to your heart Never let nobody take it over Ever take it over Ever take it over from you"

A lot of people think that depressed people hate others and the whole world, and maybe that's true for a few or maybe even for most depressed people, but not for all of them. Some (including me) really see beauty in people and in the world, but don't believe that they're able to be happy themselves (and therefore stay hopeless). However, I think this song is about this kind of depressed person, and the singer is basically telling him that, even if he's suffering that much and people hurt and try to bring him down, to not ever give up on his good heart, to never give up on love and humanity and to hold on to himself.

"Of the life you have lead that is always a mess" Depressed people mostly kind of give themselves and their life up, they stop doing the things they enjoyed and don't do the stuff they should do: their life becomes a mess.

"Are you dreaming of death Are there ghosts in your chest"

He's dreaming of death, therefore he's suicidal (again a symptom of depression). The ghosts in his chest could either mean that his heart hurts (therefore emotional pain), or that he has an unexplainable pain in his chest, another symptom of depression. Depression often causes 'unexplainable' physical pains like headache or, like here, of a pain in the chest.

Then the line of holding on to his heart comes again, telling him to not let the though times turn him a cynic, mean, selfish person. Of course everyone's free to interpret it however he/she wants, but that's what the lyrics mean to me :)

This track is very reminiscent of the "Doom-Wop" from Honus' work on Mister Heavenly

I got this song because I thought it had a catchy tune. Now that I have listened to the song a few times, and read the lyrics here, I think it is about someone who has cancer, and the song is about never giving up against the disease. The cancer has taken away the dreams and health of the person, but not the spirit or essence of the person. It seems like a sad but uplifting song at the same time.