Hymn of Acxiom – Vienna Teng

The Hymn of Acxiom – Vienna Teng

Somebody hears you. you know that. you know that.
Somebody hears you. you know that inside.
Someone is learning the colors of all your moods, to
(Say just the right thing and) show that you’re understood.
Here you’re known.

Leave your life open. you don’t have. you don’t have.
Leave your life open. you don’t have to hide.
Someone is gathering every crumb you drop, these
(Mindless decisions and) moments you long forgot.
Keep them all.

Let our formulas find your soul.
We’ll divine your artesian source (in your mind),
Marshal feed and force (our machines will)
To design you a perfect love
Or (better still) a perfect lust.
O how glorious, glorious: a brand new need is born.

Now we possess you. you’ll own that. you’ll own that.
Now we possess you. you’ll own that in time.
Now we will build you an endlessly upward world,
(Reach in your pocket) embrace you for all you’re worth.

Is that wrong?
Isn’t this what you want?
Amen.

A note – According to Wikipedia, “Acxiom is a marketing technology and services company that offers marketing and information management services, including multichannel marketing, addressable advertising and database management. Acxiom collects, analyzes, and parses customer and business information for clients, helping them to target advertising campaigns, score leads, and more.”.

Of all the songs to address the death of Anthropos and the rise of Technic, this is my favourite. In both lyrics and composition, Vienna Teng has perfectly captured our world and our wilful, headlong rush to surrender ourselves, to surrender our souls, but she also reveals why, why we do it.

This is undoubtedly a beautiful song – you only have to listen to any of the cover versions by choirs and even brass bands on YouTube to hear that. But the version that truly reveals the chilling, righteous-paranoia inducing heart of the beast is Vienna Teng’s original on her album Aims. It starts out beautifully; vocoder harmonies speak like the Divine and reassure us, like a warm hug, that somebody hears us. I mean, who doesn’t want to be heard? To be seen? To be understood?

As the song unfolds, the robotic voices intensify, their harmonies precise and measured, calibrated to sooth. Only they don’t. Unlike the versions by assorted choirs, these voices are sterile, they are not ‘off’ in any way, they are perfectly in unison, and as such, lack the humanity and warmth of the, well, human versions. If for no other reason, this is why the original version of this song is the best – beneath the beautiful, benevolent radiance, the unsettling demonic intent shows through.

If you’ve read the lyrics, you can see how understanding leads to control, how our choices, our desires, become rigged, become guided. We may have all the latest gizmos and be able to get our jogging bottoms in just the right shade of cornflower blue. We may be able to go online and purchase our way to individualism, but it’s ‘guided individualism’. The Archons of our Gnostic prison understand us too well. They pull the levers and plant the seeds. We consume their product. We feed their power. They are many. Acxiom is one of them.

Are you really happy with an endlessly upward life?