Griff's One Foot in Front of the Other is pop in its purest and most euphoric form

In May, she took to the 2021 BRIT Awards, galloping across stage in a metal eyelet dress designed and handmade herself, and possessing a confidence that seemed to exceed her 20 years of age. The recording of her BRIT performance of "Black Hole" has already garnered over 1.5 million views on YouTube, and is likely to be a good indicator of the artist’s future.

After teasing her repertoire through a flurry of singles since 2019’s The Mirror Talk EP, the half Chinese, half Jamaican songwriter now releases her longest record to date, One Foot in Front of the Other. Indeed, the seven-track mixtape is pop in its purest and most euphoric form.

Griff lunges from track to track, dancing alongside the listener through the highs (“Walk”) and lows (“Earl Grey”). The latter an emotive number that brews through heavy piano chords and muted percussion “You’re so scared of dying lonely / but why aren’t you as scared of dying lonely?”.

We get to delve past the seemingly effortless confidence that Griff exudes on stage, and into a mind that isn’t immune to modern day anxieties. In tracks “Shade of Yellow” and the titular “One Foot in Front of the Other”, she turns these angsts on their head and refurbishes them into unapologetic pop.

Griff explores self-doubt in ”Heart of Gold” (Oh, he’s got a heart of gold / and mine’s a little more like stone" where finger snaps are put to use amidst vocoder layering and wavy synth. The very well received “Black Hole” is deceptively bouncy with its punchy percussion and synth jabs under lyrics on heartbreak and recovery.

One Foot in Front of the Other is joyful and unpretentious – Griff seems to have indeed found her footing in the industry and it doesn’t look like she’ll be leaving anytime soon.