Estonia conquers the dance charts… again.
[Video][Website]
[5.75]
Anthony Easton: I am reviewing the video, or if not reviewing it, just writing the phrase lesbian space butterflies, which pretty much encompasses everything that is both right and wrong about this song, a sort of exploitation Mondo Björk, weirdness for the sake of weirdness, more high trash and less high art, with so little to recommend it, but so little to convince you that it is worth listening to.
[5]
Kat Stevens: The usual Guetta-bosh recipe (ravey verse, dull melody, quiet pre-chorus, hookless actual chorus) is maximised up with no space left unfilled — even the quiet bits have Kerli screeching up in the high notes. So far, so depressing, BUT THEN with about a minute left to go a chipmunk-ised dubstep breakdown and a black diamante cricketer’s helmet saves the day. Thank Christ for that.
[5]
Iain Mew: “Zero Gravity” takes contrast between words and music to an extreme with Kerli bellowing “now I’m in zero gravity!” like she’s straining to get the words out under the crushing weight of a planet-sized barrage of beats, bass and synths. Then she turns into another orbiting sound effect. The scale is awe-inspiring. The actually light and floaty sections of the song are really only there to provide contrast before impact; they do the job perfectly.
[8]
Brad Shoup: It works better when you think of the song as a delivery mechanism for those waves of fine-sliced Kerli, coming atcha like a klaxon. You have to wait out most of the song, but still: there’s your senseloss.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Producers should pay attention to the relationship between form and content. Why allow your client to claim “I’m feeling weightless” when tethered to an anchor so rusted with use? The identikit arrangement would defeat Whitney.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: You can’t call a track “Zero Gravity” and saddle it with weighty rave synths and a black-hole bridge. That last one actually sounds pretty good, but tell that to an astronomer.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: Svante Halldin and Jakob Hazell do a passable Guetta bosh, and Kerli herself pushes a Linn Berggren range into Gaga-belting territory; the result is a little more overwhelming than anyone really wants, but once you get the machine rolling this heavily, it’s impossible to apply any brakes.
[7]
Edward Okulicz: If Kerli’s out in space, this over-amplified mess would have to have been the result of some seriously good sound reflectors positioned behind the mixing desk. Yet, even though this is too loud and would have those who are in traction following the Loudness Wars begging for amputation (of their ears), it actually has a startlingly affecting melody to go along with it. And Kerli’s Estonian accent (slightly weaker than it was back in ’04 when she was starting out but still pronounced) gives it a suitably otherworldly tenor. Whether that works east of, say, Poland, is anyone’s guess but I don’t think they’re the target audience for “Zero Gravity.” This is a properly big splash at the States; it’s good enough to deserve to work, but probably not good enough to actually work.
[7]