Think about the worst date you’ve been on. The one date where you were about to do the old, “I’ve got to go to the bathroom and never come back” trick. The one where someone literally had another person waiting for them at the start of your date. Griffen Handshake sings about this type of date in their song, “Emergency Exit”.
Let’s first talk about the music. I rock with it heavy! The fast-paced drumming, the hard-hitting guitar, and the singer’s voice all mesh so well together. This song gives me a lot of early 2000s punk rock vibes, but it also strikes a chord (no pun intended) with me because it sounds so much like a song that catches your ear in a movie and you go out of your way to find it. It just has that nostalgic charm to it.
Lyrically, this is such a strong showing. As said earlier, this song is about a date gone wrong, but it goes even worse than you can imagine. Our first indicator of how bad it goes: “I had no idea that my friend was there”. Yeah… there wasn’t a second date. Seriously though, I love the storytelling in this song. We start with hearing about a big date, and it just keeps descending into a bad one. To the point where he’s looking for the emergency exit
I love how Griffen Handshake gives such a satisfying, “F You” to the person in question. It’s not too little where they are wishing the person that did them wrong the best, but they also don’t go so far where you’d say, “Ok y’all… chill…”. I always appreciate when artists can nail this feeling, as it is a realistic catharsis.
Something else that I must mention is how the song gets more chaotic near the end. When you hit the solo, you can feel him scrambling to find the emergency exit, and by the outro, it feels like he’s running to his car as fast as he can because he was seen by the person he was on a date with. I love those little nuances in this song, and it makes for such a dynamic listen.
Overall, “Emergency Exit” by Griffen Handshake is an amazing song that is able to blend the vocals and instruments perfectly, has fun with the subject matter, and makes you feel like you are in the situation with them. Check out “Emergency Exit” by Griffen Handshake, I promise you that you’ll love them!
Written by Marcus Norris
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