Alice Merton is ready to return to the stage with her new single “Vertigo.”
Produced by Koz, the track was inspired by a dizzying experience Merton had while waiting in line for a club. She channels this unease into a dense drum beat and cathartic guitar riff reminiscent of Muse as she tries to grapple with the unpleasant sensation.
“‘Vertigo’ was the first song I had written, where I thought ‘OK, now I’m actually writing for the next album,'” Merton tells Rolling Stone. “For the first time in a while, I felt excited to have written a song that I couldn’t wait to perform live. It basically came about after Koz and I had talked about what it’s like living in Berlin, the very different club scene, and my anxiety when it came to going out and being in big crowds and small spaces. I casually described a club night, where I felt out of place, and the feeling of vertigo took over. We both felt it would be fun to play around with this idea and create a dark atmosphere, supported by a driving rhythm and an almost hypnotic guitar riff.”
“Vertigo” marks Merton’s first new music since 2019’s Mint. In 2018, she was featured as a Rolling Stone Artist You Need to Know, where she discussed her debut single “No Roots.” Merton describes her new album as darker and more melodic than its predecessor.
“It was important to me that whatever comes next isn’t just a logical sequence to Mint, but a more adventurous journey, challenging myself but also staying true to what feels right in the moment,” she says. “I was lucky to work with various producers who were just as excited as I was to venture out of our comfort zone and try new things.”
MUSIC PREMIERES
Maren Morris can speak from experience: No other concert crowd holds a candle to Taylor Swift‘s.
While on The Jennifer Hudson Show Wednesday (May 7), the Texas-born singer-songwriter opened up about performing her Fearless (Taylor’s Version) collaboration, “You All Over Me,” with Swift at one of the pop superstar’s 2023 Eras Tour shows in Chicago. “I’ve never seen a crowd like that, and there’s not a crowd like hers,” Morris raved.
“They’re so supportive, they’re listening to all the lyrics, they want to hear every nuance and breath between words,” she continued. “They’re truly locked in. It was a real treat to experience on that plane.”
The duo sang together at the “Fortnight” musician’s second of three Soldier Field shows in June 2023, which came two years after they first teamed up for the re-release of Swift’s blockbuster 2008 sophomore album. The performance marked the first time they’d ever played “You All Over Me” — a From the Vault bonus track on the revamped Fearless — live.
But Morris and Swift had been friends long before that, performing the former’s smash “The Middle” together in Arlington, Texas, on the latter’s Reputation Tour in 2018. In November 2023, the “Circles Around This Town” singer told Jimmy Fallon that her onetime collaborator has “been so supportive of me and my career over the years,” adding, “We’re the same age, but looking up to her since I was a teenager, and watching her navigate her country music to pop career so gracefully, and the way she treats her fans is so kind and generous … she’s setting a high bar.”
Morris echoed those sentiments on Hudson’s talk show, telling the host, “I fell in love with [Swift’s] songwriting back in high school, and I just turned 35, so I feel like even before I met Taylor, I had this friendship in my mind with her.”
The interview comes two days ahead of Morris’ fourth studio album, Dreamsicle, which features the five tracks she previously dropped in August on EP Intermission. The new project is also preceded by two singles, “Carry Me Through” and “Bed No Breakfast,” released in March and April, respectively.
Watch Morris gush about Swift on The Jennifer Hudson Show below.
