"The Heart of Me" is a song by Swedish indie pop band Miike Snow from their third studio album, iii (2016). Written and produced by the band, the song was initially issued as a buzz single on 19 February 2016, in anticipation of the album's release. Subsequently, Atlantic Records sent it to alternative radio in the United States on 15 November 2016, as the fourth and final single off the album. Musically, "The Heart of Me" is a synth-laden chillwave song with indie rock elements and emotional lyrics. It features background vocals by English singer Charli XCX.
"The Heart of Me" received generally positive reviews from music critics, some of whom complimented its upbeat production. The single became Miike Snow's first to lack an accompanying music video. The song is included on the soundtrack for the racing video game Forza Horizon 3 (2016). In March 2017, a deep house remix of the track by Dutch DJ duo The Him was released digitally.
Background
"The Heart of Me" was written by Miike Snow's three members, Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg and Andrew Wyatt, for the band's third studio album, iii (2016). Wyatt conceptualized the melody of the song's intro while walking over a bridge in Australia. The recording sessions for the album took place in different studios in California, New York, and Sweden, from 2014 to 2015. In an interview for the Los Angeles Times, Wyatt said he adapted his singing based on the needs of each song throughout the album. He had previously aimed to present a "consistent character" during concerts, which resulted in the band's second studio album Happy to You (2012) holding a "more uniform sound". For iii, Wyatt switched focus to his performance in the studio rather than on stage, which resulted in a "lighter, airier quality" to his voice on "The Heart of Me". He said he learned a lot about how he wanted to sing and "how the softer you sing the bigger it sounds".
English singer Charli XCX, who contributed guest vocals on the album track "For U", provided background vocals on the song alongside Winnberg and Wyatt. The two previously worked with the singer on her album Sucker (2014), for which Wyatt sang background vocals on two tracks. "The Heart of Me" and other album tracks include sections of computerized vocals. Karlsson explained in an interview for Electronic Musician that "I never like any vocal when it just sounds like a normal vocal. Ever. Sometimes I feel like I spend 50 percent of my time on the treatment of the vocals and 50 percent of the time I spend on the rest of the song." The live instruments in "The Heart of Me" were played by Winnberg, Wyatt, and Homer Steinweiss. The band handled its production, engineering with S. Vaughan Merrick, and mixing with Niklas Flyckt. Digital mastering was performed by Kevin Grainger.
Composition and lyrics
Musically, "The Heart of Me" is a chillwave song with indie rock elements. Its instrumentation is primarily provided by drums, a piano, and a synthesizer. The song begins with a manipulated vocal hook. Music critics likened the song to works by American bands MGMT, Passion Pit, and Spoon. Earmilk writer Steph Evans characterized it as "upbeat" and rock and roll-infused, while Neil Z. Young of AllMusic defined it as "peppered with fuzzy synths". According to James Grebey of Spin, the production displays a "cool aloofness" that is "betrayed, sublimely, by the more emotional vocals". Similarly, Dancing Astronaut writer Alex Hitchcock observed the contrast between the "high-spirited, synth-filled melody" and the "brooding, emotionally-charged vocals". In the bridge, he sings about "standing in a cathedral in Europe and feeling at one with the universe", as interpreted by Spectrum Culture writer Josh Goller. The writer noted the song's theme of love, sentimentalism, and relationship melodrama. musicOMH Ben Hogwood perceived the lyrics as commentary on fame and "the trappings of it"; the writer singled out the first verse's line "I can't stop this hurtful shit from happening" as alluding to fame having personal consequences.