“Mind vs Heart” is a luminous study in contradiction—emotionally direct, sonically restrained, and honest to a fault. A song that doesn’t try to fix the sadness. Just… honors it.
On their third single, “Mind vs Heart,” the track unfolds in tender, diaristic snapshots that capture the quiet ache of loving while living with depression. From the opening image of morning light on shared sheets to the intimate, almost mundane moment of putting on a partner’s shirt, Los Angeles-based alternative pop artist Elena C. Lockleis builds a world where affection and ambivalence coexist. The chorus delivers the emotional nucleus with piercing simplicity—“my mind says I’m better off alone / ‘cause I’m so broken inside”—juxtaposed with the fragile hope of “just let you in / won’t know until you try.” It’s a lyrical push and pull between self-protection and surrender, culminating in an outro that doesn’t offer resolution but instead circles back to sadness, quietly devastating in its honesty: “I tell you I’m getting sad again.”
Featuring guest vocals from Natalia Zuk—the compelling voice behind emo-grunge-punk outfit Red Carpet Revival—the track fuses glossy alt-pop textures with introspective lyricism, echoing the lineage of emotionally incisive songwriters like Julia Michaels, who Lockleis explicitly cites as a key influence.
The collaboration was entirely remote– from Zuk and the producer, L.M., but there’s an uncanny cohesion between the players that suggests deeper chemistry. “They were both excellent at understanding what I was trying to go for,” Lockleis explains, a validation of what can happen when clarity of vision meets trust in collaborators.
“Mind vs Heart” is a confessional tug-of-war between logic and longing, clinical detachment and unguarded affection. The production leans into this emotional duality: glistening synth pads and a steady mid-tempo pulse (BPM: 114) cushion the vulnerability of the lyrics, while subtle harmonic shifts in B♭ major lend the song an aching optimism even as the words veer into despair.
Natalia Zuk’s contribution doesn’t upend the song’s gentle atmosphere—it grounds it. Known for her grittier work with Red Carpet Revival, Zuk brings surprising restraint here. Her voice weaves into Lockleis’s like a second conscience—resigned, tender, and quietly furious. Where Lockleis delivers the verses with wounded clarity, Zuk haunts the choruses like a shadow version of the narrator, echoing that fractured inner dialogue.
Lockleis has said they write often about what love might look like with Depression mixed in. “Mind vs Heart” doesn’t dramatize mental health, nor does it sanitize it. Instead, it portrays depression as the quiet antagonist of an almost-love story. Not a villain. Just… ever-present.
If the phrase “Honor the song” is Lockleis’s guiding mantra, “Mind vs Heart” feels like the purest execution of that ethos to date. There’s no grand statement, no posturing or climax. There’s something courageous about the way the song refuses to resolve. The final chorus circles back, the way depressive thought loops often do. It ends not with triumph or closure, but with return. The sun is still pouring in. The bed is still warm. And the sadness has come again.
Elena C. Lockleis’s “Mind vs Heart” is a luminous study in contradiction—emotionally direct, sonically restrained, and honest to a fault. A song that doesn’t try to fix the sadness. Just… honors it.
For fans of: Julia Michaels, Phoebe Bridgers, Holly Humberstone, mxmtoon.
Stream if you’ve ever: Stared at the ceiling wondering why you pushed someone good away.
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