Not a promotional tie-in for the Boring Company…
[Video]
[5.57]
Katherine St Asaph: I really wasn’t expecting any new music in the actual hype cycle to remind me of Fox Lima, she of the crowdsourced Enigma “Social Song,” or chillout artist Schiller circa “I’ve Seen It All” — although if it happened with anyone I suppose it’d have to be with Grimes. This leads me to one of two equally horrifying conclusions: Either Grimes and I have the exact same musical taste, or Elon Musk is an Enigma stan.
[7]
Ashley Bardhan: So Heavy I watched this video of Grimes as a hologram introducing Elon Musk as her “creator” at the cybertruck unveiling three times and thought about removing my tonsils in a separate train of thought, but I like this song for surfing the web.
[7]
Oliver Maier: Even before her heel-turn I felt as though Grimes went somewhat underappreciated as a vocalist. It’s the production that provides the weight on “So Heavy,” echoing everything from Darkside to Massive Attack, but her fey soprano is what lends the whole affair some sense of devotional purpose and helps it mostly avoid being self-indulgent molasses.
[7]
Taylor Alatorre: Very clever, calling the shorter version of this — the one that’s going on the album, apparently — the “Algorithm Mix.” Very Grimes. But doing so implies that that the six-minute-long “Art Mix” adds something uniquely potent to the experience, that there is some hidden wisdom granted only to those who more thoroughly surrender themselves to the artist’s will. There is not. “So Heavy” is an expertly constructed stage without actors or action, a New Age fusion that’s too wound up in itself to soothe, a Purity Ring song someone stuck in the microwave on the baked potato setting. It’s almost, but not quite pretty enough to make me forget that it’s wasting my time.
[4]
Alfred Soto: The harmonic swirls and tropospheric arrangement evoke the title, but at six minutes “So Heavy…” is a rather long introduction to a better song. No?
[4]
Tobi Tella: A sprawling, downtempo song where the very sparse lyrics aren’t necessarily optimistic , that releases a wave of melancholy, and yet in some ways, feels like a big warm hug on a winter day.
[7]
Jackie Powell: This cut should only function as the backing track to the phantasmagoria that exists in fantasy video games. I turned off the volume on YouTube videos of World of Warcraft and played “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth” while watching warriors and magical creatures haul weapons and magic in order to hand its adversary defeat. It worked. I gather Grimes wouldn’t be insulted by this, as she did draw concept art for this track that read: “Massive Battle Scene.”
[3]
