“Light as a feather, stiff as a board” is a game often played by children at slumber parties that has existed since the 1600s. A person lays on the ground and a group surrounds them. One person in the group declares that the person laying in the center is dead. Then the group tries to lift the “dead” person using two fingers each, while chanting “light as a feather, stiff as a board.” The idea is that a spirit will enter the body of the person laying down that allows them to become “light as a feather” and even levitate.

This game also appears on a famous scene in the cult movie The Craft.

In Grimes’ reference to this game, she does not levitate but sinks to the floor, implying that there is no spirit that will make her light. This ties into the nihilist theme of the song: there is no spiritual world, especially not one that can uplift or raise the dead.

Musically, this part of the song is supposed to be how a breakdown would sound in an EDM song. As Jordan Fish said to Exclaim!: