As Grimes continues to gradually put out music she’s been sitting on for a while (due to previous label dilemmas, of course), “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth” follows the also recently released “Violence” (as well as “Pretty Dark,” though that was part of a different project) in a bid to reingratiate herself back into public consciousness. Though she already has been since late October when an unfinished version of Miss_Anthropocene leaked online. Including this, what is sure to become a go-to diet anthem for 2020 (for Grimes isn’t averse to having her music in commercials, and this would be tailor-made for a New Year’s resolution one about losing weight).
At a lulling and roving six minutes and eight seconds, “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth” harkens back to Grimes’ more experimental days on Geidi Primes, before her music became so palatable–like, palatable enough for Apple commercials (and Expedia ones circa 2015, for that matter). Maybe it speaks to a return to the full-blown autonomy she has over her own career without the hovering presence of 4AD. Or maybe she simply feels cushioned by the cocoon of Elon Musk’s wealth, a natural shield from public opinion. Whatever the drive behind the sound, “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth” does its best to give The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” a run for its money on experimentalism (of course, it would be impossible to actually usurp the latter on that front–John Lennon had access to purer therefore more inspiring drugs than Grimes, after all).
The “visualizer” video that comes with the song is in keeping with the title’s theme, and features a souped-up heroine version of Grimes in warrior garb (think Joan of Arc) orbiting the Earth (title carded with Los Angeles, November 2019) in concert with a bevy of asteroids and a dragon that just won’t go away. And every time it looks as though she might slay it, all she does is stick her sword in its mouth (feministic symbolism?) only for the Earth’s atmosphere to shift to another color (ranging from pink to black to blue, and well beyond). The dragon is, to be sure, a metaphor for so many problems facing the globe at present, from shoddy world leadership to ignored signs of apocalyptic climate change. Which is why the ambient Enya-inspired groove is almost a jarring dichotomy to this image–all the more reason why it’s so effective.
Yet, despite its “end times” overtones, the track is, for all intents and purposes, a love song (just like The Beatles one). With Grimes crooning, “So heavy I fell through the earth/Yeah, oh/’Cause I’m full of love from you.” Whether that’s from Mother Earth herself or her cyborg main man of the moment is at one’s discretion. All one knows is, by the end of the circuitous visual, there seems to be a stalemate between both woman and beast, neither one quite taming the other. Interpret that to mean what you will.
