Recommended tracks: “Carousel,” “Silver Lining,” “Mr. Eclectic”
Artists you may like: beabadoobee, Clairo, d4vd
Laufey, the songstress of yearning and unrequited love, has returned with her third studio album A Matter Of Time. While she’s made a name for herself with songs of one-sided desire against the backdrop of beautiful jazz and classical music, this latest project from the Icelandic artist shows a new side of Laufey as she finds love only to fall apart once again. Additionally, it infuses many more pop elements than before, which results in some hits and misses, but overall doesn’t distract from the album’s lyricism and storytelling.
Starting us off is the classic jazz song “Clockwork,” which offers a fun look into the album’s motifs of love and heartbreak. Time is obviously the main theme of the album, and Laufey wastes no time establishing this with the ticking of a clock fading in and out of the song. The brush drum beat mimics the passing seconds, which is a fun way to continue with the clock without the loud, sharp sound. Laufey playfully divulges the story of the A Matter Of Time to her listeners with the line “oh my god I’ve said too much.” However, it soon becomes apparent that the singer has much more to say as the album really begins.
“Lover Girl” is classic Laufey, with its bossa nova style mixed with the singer’s honey-like voice. The lyrics show a lovestruck girl as Laufey admits she’s in a “reckless fever.” The song is a nice lead into the rest of the album as it showcases the sound and artistry the Icelandic singer has developed. It shifts, however, from the more common stories she’s told in the past to the “lovestruck girl.” She admits she “thought I’d never be her.” Strings swell in and out during the chorus and perfectly encapsulate the growing infatuation that the singer is feeling. “Lover Girl” is a nice introduction to the eventual love that will fall apart in the album, starting with the first fanatical ideas of the “curse to be a lover girl.”
This giddiness is, however, suddenly cut short with the sombre and slow “Snow White.” A gut-wrenching look into the beauty standards set on women, the title’s reference to a fictional character whose beauty is the “fairest of them all” is undercut by the song’s lyrics. The line, “I don’t think I’m pretty, it’s not up for debate,” is a blatant admission of hurt and despair over the ways that body image is pushed onto women. The guitar and the slower strings add to the emotional weight of the song as Laufey laments on the insecurities she constantly grapples with.
“Castle in Hollywood” offers a quick change of pace, with the string rhythm and soft drum hinting at pop elements. The song is a look back on an old relationship that still chips away at the singer. The line “I wish I could tell you how I finally fell in love” shows a persistent bitterness over this failed relationship and a want to prove that she’s grown. Yet, the first verse tries to figure out “what happened that year in our house,” and shows a desire to know why the relationship fell apart. While the growing pace of the song is a nice contrast to “Snow White,” it begins to feel a bit repetitive by the end, as the chorus takes up far more space than the verses.
A highlight of A Matter Of Time is easily the piano, with its careful mix of dissonance and wood adding to the “old-timey” feel of many of the album’s love songs. This is perfectly executed in “Carousel,” whose piano complements the accordion wonderfully. The clever analogy of love being a carousel “spinning around” follows on with another motif of the album: a circus. Balancing the idea of falling in love being both a chaotic circus and a destined thing of time is a trick that Laufey has easily pulled off with this album, with the lyrics and musical aesthetic cleverly complementing both ideas in each song.
The lead single was “Silver Lining,” wonderfully reviewed by Melodic Mag’s Sarah Space. It’s a beautifully constructed yet sincere waltz of a love song. The line “fell in love on a whim” shows audiences the persistent hesitation of love that Laufey has developed, but the rest of the song is nothing short of giddy. The swelling strings in the chorus highlight the overwhelming feeling of infatuation as the singer declares, “if you go to hell I’ll go there with you too.”
In stark contrast to “Silver Lining” is the slower, more heartbreaking “Too Little, Too Late.” The lighter sound on the piano signals a change in tone as Laufey sadly reminisces on a love that could have been. While the lead single could fall easily into a wedding playlist, “Too Little, Too Late” tearfully looks at a wedding and says, “I should be the one you’re engaged to.” The staccato strings set the nervous rhythm and pace as the circus imagery continues with “I’m just a jester.” Laufey is a yearner at heart, and this song is classic Laufey.
Signaling the halfway point in the album is the instrumental interlude “Cuckoo Ballet – Interlude.” The woodwinds in the start of this orchestral piece reminisce on the melodies heard so far with the poignant return of the ticking of the grand clock. A change of focus from the woodwinds to the strings shows a change in mood from playful to slow. This could reference the shift in tone for the album overall, as the newness of infatuation matures into love and then heartbreak. With the return of a clock ticking and the swell of the strings, the second half of A Matter of Time begins.
The orchestra transitions smoothly into “Forget-Me-Not,” with the tone and pace slowing down. An ode to her home country, “Forget-Me-Not” makes the comparison between a lover and the island country with lines such as “miss the stone-cold kiss on my cheeks.” The song does well to balance the homesickness of language with the effortless shifts between Icelandic and English in each verse.
Easily the least jazzy song on A Matter of Time is “Tough Luck,” whose melody and structure are nothing short of a pop song. The single is a sour reflection on an immature relationship as Laufey sarcastically asks, “are you tired?” Overall, A Matter Of Time fuses a lot more pop elements into its music, but “Tough Luck” is the most noticeable genre blend. While some of the songs work along with the jazz-pop blend, “Tough Luck”’s pop feels a bit out of place within the album and forced in as an afterthought. While the lyrics are fun and playful, they are backed by unmemorable instrumentation and stylings.
The pop style of “Tough Luck” transforms into “A Cautionary Tale,” with the focus on guitar rhythm and harsh drum sounds. A more emotionally driven version of the single, “A Cautionary Tale” is a bitter story of the emotional distress of trying to fix a dying relationship. The line “my chameleon heart took your draining personality and gave it to me” highlights the emotional baggage that Laufey took up for another person. A comparison of the relationship “destined to pay the toll” to an “hourglass” continues with the theme of time. This song strikes a nice balance between jazz and modern pop that some of the other songs struggle to achieve.
“Mr. Eclectic” follows, and its creative lyrics and sarcastic tone are somewhat cut short and should have been made longer. Laufey complains about a man who constantly tries to overshadow and patronise her with the funnily insulting line, “you’re just a stoner patronising me.” While “Snow White” is a more sombre look into the realities of being a woman in the music industry, “Mr. Eclectic” is more embittered and “over it” as the artist sings, “you think you’re so interesting.” The tone works well with the returned bossa nova style, but is sadly cut short after only two and a half minutes.
The sourness of “Mr. Eclectic” is washed away in the pop song “Clean Air.” This one does include some jazz-style percussion, giving it some edge. Laufey sings of the eventual cleansing of negative relationships as she’s “saging my bedroom” and “sweeter pastures wait for me like a lover.” The song does its job in conveying the progression from the chaotic turmoil of destructive love, but doesn’t particularly stand out in anyway.
Closing out A Matter of Time is “Sabotage,” a song about the cycles of love and loss. The piano makes its long-awaited return to the forefront of the instrumentation as Laufey states, “it’s just a matter of time till you see the dagger.” A more pessimistic viewpoint on love and its longevity pains the artist as she “can’t be convinced” of a never-ending love. While it’s heartbreaking, it is a fitting end to an album that catapults from love to hate repeatably. This heartbreak is only further emphasised by the crashing orchestra that boldly sends off the album.
A Matter Of Time sees Laufey tackle emotions and events that she’s unfamiliar with, and she clearly isn’t afraid to show the turmoil and uncertainly that riddles these new feelings. While the album’s lyricism is the most personal and creative that the songwriter has ever been, some of the pop elements seem too forced for the overall jazz album. Some songs are able to achieve this genre blend effortlessly, but others struggle. Still, the album shows the development of Laufey’s artistry with a clear and concise vision and aesthetic that can clearly be heard in each song.
A Matter Of Time is out now.
