Review of One Foot in Front of the Other by Griff - Katie Proctor

When asked “What do you know about Griff?”, the majority of people who have heard her name would refer to Black Hole, the hit single described as a “dark pop anthem” by NME that gained immediate notice and racked up 42 million streams on Spotify. Such is the reputation of the singer, who was awarded the Brits Rising Star Award 2021 after the success of her dynamic single, and has since become recognisable for her unique-sounding music with its poetic lyrics. Having been lauded by one of her greatest inspirations Taylor Swift, who took to Instagram to praise the last single Shade of Yellow from her mixtape One Foot in Front of the Other as well as sending her flowers and partying with her at the Brits, there is no doubt that Griff is already a powerhouse in the music industry.

Despite the fact that Griff has been producing music for years and was signed to Warner Records in 2019, it is evident that 2021 is the year of her breakthrough, and she’s not going anywhere anytime soon. I had been following Griff since a video of hers was advertised to me on Instagram – a clip from an acoustic cover of Taylor Swift’s exile that stood out to me immediately for being completely different to both the original and other covers I’d heard of the song. She swapped the piano for an acoustic guitar and turned up the pace, totally changing the mood of the song, which, coupled with her distinctive voice, sold me on her. As I would later come to realise, this is characteristic of her original songs too, which often combine upbeat music with heart-rending lyrics. To put it simply, Griff is not just producing catchy pop songs. She’s doing that while making each of them achingly relatable and painful too.

I’d been following her for a while and watching a few videos with a casual interest when I saw the announcement of her Brit nomination, which undoubtedly made me sit up and take notice of the singer even more. Embarrassingly on my part, her performance of Black Hole at the ceremony was the first time I had heard the song, but from then on, I was hooked. Her win of the prestigious award was swiftly followed by the news of her upcoming mixtape, evidence of Griff’s ability to capitalise on the huge growth of her audience after such a compelling performance.

Although it would have been very possible for the rest of the singles, and indeed the entire mixtape, to be overshadowed by the popularity of Black Hole, the release of title track One Foot in Front of the Other by no means fell into that trap. Griff intelligently links many of the songs together, with OFIFOTO and Walk mapping out the process of heartbreak after Black Hole from emptiness to the uncertainty of healing to eventual self-reliance, demonstrating the self-awareness required to create a cohesive and inspiring collection of music. It is these central themes of misery after a breakup, anxiety and the difficulties of learning how to emotionally “walk” again that ties the mixtape together. Griff shows the narrator’s journey from “my legs they started shaking / And my hands they started quaking / ‘Cause things just take longer to heal these days” as though walking a tightrope (as expressed in the cover image), to the simple encouragement of the final song that seems to be retrospectively telling the heartbroken singer of Black Hole “all you gotta do now is walk”.

One Foot in Front of the Other is a masterclass in creating songs that remain clear enough to be catchy and fun, the type of songs that you can sing along to in any situation or mood, but can just as easily act as the backdrop of a deeply emotional moment in a person’s life. Whilst Black Hole is the obvious exploration of feelings of sadness and loneliness, and even desperation in the gutting lyrics “And boy, you know I’ve tried to pray / I’ve bruised my knees / I’ve tried to bring you back to me / I’ve tried my best to find some kind of peace / Don’t you see”, each song on the mixtape is strong in its poetic honesty. In Shade of Yellow, Griff voices a narrator who pretends to be oblivious to her desire to be with someone, disguising it by singing about the “lamp in your room / And it burns like a shade of yellow” which makes her feel “safe in the head”. Equally, Earl Grey Tea is a departure from the sound of the mixtape, stripped back to Griff’s vocals and a simple piano melody with heart-wrenching rhymes “you’re so scared of dying slowly / But why aren’t you more scared of dying lonely?”

Griff’s debut mixtape acts far from a first attempt. Instead, it’s a mature and unique collection of songs that has no distinct weakness in any of its songs. Each is just as capable as the last, contributing to Griff’s distinctive style yet standing on its own as a beautiful addition to a brilliant release. I’m no professional, but I’d like to think I’m right when I say that she will only continue to get better. And if you won’t listen to me, listen to Taylor Swift. Who else’s endorsement could you possibly need?

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Katie Proctor (they/them) is a poet from Yorkshire, England. They write freeform poetry and prose typically regarding their experience with love, relationships and mental health. Their debut collection of poetry, Seasons, was published in 2020, and their sophomore collection A Desire for Disaster will be published later this year, both by Hedgehog Poetry. They are the editor-in-chief of celestite poetry, a journal of creative writing and non-fiction. They are a student with a passion for literature, history and classics, and plan to study English Literature at university. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram @katiiewrites.