"Vertigo" by Griff // Song Review

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"Vertigo" dives into all of the conflicting feelings that come after a breakup and the disorienting process of trying to make sense of an emotionally unavailable partner. Griff released it as the title track of her debut album in 2024, which shaped the direction the rest of the record went in. This song, and the rest of Vertigo, features some of the most infectious synth pop production, paired beautifully with her distinctive heartfelt lyricism that brings so much depth to the music she releases. 

"You're scared of heights, that's vertigo, you wanted lights, go see a show, you ran away, that's touch and go, you're scared of love, well, aren't we all?" she sings in the chorus of the song. 

"When someone leaves your life, you spend a lot of time asking if it was your fault. This song lists all those reasons why it could be, but it's also about trying to reassure yourself that there was nothing you could have done to make it better," Griff said in an interview with DORK. "With the way it crescendos, I've always heard it as a bit of an emotional rollercoaster."

In her Spotify bio, Griff wrote that her debut as a whole is about "...vertigo as an emotion and the dizziness and upside down feeling of heartache." She released the project in three parts; Volume 1 was rooted in what she called the "insular low feelings", which is how she initially introduced the title track "Vertigo". Volume 2 was then about diving into the "desperate euphoria", followed finally the full album Vertigo depicting the full story in one place. This was such a unique way to release an album, by allowing the story to be told in three distinctive phases for the listener to experience piece by piece.  

"I thought that I could be the one to change you, I thought that I could be the one to prove, I'm used to fixin' broken things before, I thought maybe I could fix you too" she sings in the second verse, which captures such a specific emotional ache and yearning that the relationship could have ended differently. 

Griff added in her DORK interview that this song is indicative of a different direction she's tapping into with her music at this stage of her career. She said, "There's a darkness to 'Vertigo' that maybe I haven't tapped into as much before. It's still major, but there's something quite dark and moody about it too. It's the start of a new season for me, for sure. I've been writing a lot and trying to figure out what's right for me. We'll start with 'Vertigo' and see where we end up. We're going to be walking through it together, bit by bit." 


Check out more from my song of the week series here. ☆ Thanks for reading!  

-Melissa ♡



Photo Credit: Griff, Warner Music



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