Impacting with Typical of Me (2022), her debut extended play, Laufey captured critics and record buyers alike. Then over the next three years, she continued developing her sound – rich and sonorous – across another triptych of EPs, two live albums, and a pair of acclaimed full-length studio efforts, Everything I Know About Love (2022) and Bewitched (2023). These discs consolidated additional reviewer praise and grew her reach on the charts.
Bewitched earned an inaugural GRAMMY Award (“Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album”) in 2024, bringing her to the notice of the ultimate songstress herself: Barbra Streisand. Currently, Laufey features amongst a decorated roster lining Streisand’s 37th long player The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2 (2025). Despite this vertiginous rise, Laufey conserves her music’s core: a traditional-to-modern pop fusion curated from a complex mix of jazz, classical, acoustic, and bossa nova. It’s the ideal canvas for her voice and songwriting on third album A Matter of Time.
She refines her formula enlisting the talents of Spencer Stewart and Aaron Dessner to produce.
Dessner – one of the founders of the indie-rock clique The
National – is fire-new to Laufey’s orbit; his tunesmithing on a few of
Taylor Swift’s recent releases has only yielded him further renown.
Stewart’s work history with Laufey on Everything I Know About Love and Bewitched
makes him a welcome figure on this affair. Laufey joins them as a
co-producer, partial arranger and session hand. Her way with piano,
cello, electric bass, celeste, wood block, upright bass, and more (see
the sleeve notes for details) demonstrate her keen abilities.
The three musicians spare no expense maintaining the filmic grandeur her projects have become known for. It casts A Matter of Time
as a spellbinding experience for any audiophile. Opener “Clockwork” is a
decadent slice of big band nostalgia, indicative of the quality one can
expect.
Even better, there’s a deepening of Laufey’s unique,
aforementioned fusion throughout. The drums feel more punctuated with “A
Cautionary Tale”, the guitar-strumming feels balmier on “Castle In
Hollywood”, and the strings zing just a little bit more via
“Forget-Me-Not”. All these particulars are revealed with that
introductory listen and will make any subsequent visit to this set as
exciting as that initial spin. This method reaches a beautiful crescendo
on “Cuckoo Ballet”, an instrumental reprise of A Matter of Time’s first six selections; it recalls “Nocturne”, an antecedent version of “Cuckoo Ballet” on Bewitched, but with its compositional contrast set to a brighter tone here.
Alongside
Laufey’s signature styles are some fresh motifs too. The record’s
lead-off single “Silver Lining” is all brushed drums, reverb, and
assorted torch spice evoking the likes of Dionne Warwick or Nancy
Wilson. Laufey wraps this tune around her handsome alto with an uncanny
poise. “Tough Luck” begins in downbeat pop-rock fashion before flowing
into a slinky, disco-lite groove with chamber pop effects. Echoes of the
countrypolitan past (Emmylou Harris) and present (Maren Morris) are
gorgeously realized on “Clean Air”. Laufey also dips into the adult
alternative of fellow Icelander Björk circa Selmasongs (2000)
on “Sabotage”. In this collision of experimental and classical pop, it
is notably the economy of her voice that is its most stunning feature.
As the lead writer on every cut for A Matter of Time,
Laufey continues to thread a mean needle with thematic elements.
Whether it’s romance in full bloom (“Carousel”) or wilted (“Too Little,
Too Late”), Laufey demonstrates that love often exists somewhere between
the poles of escapism and reality.
This is done brilliantly on sister cuts “Lover Girl” and
“Mr. Eclectic”. The former captures the blush of attraction before the
latter uncovers evidence of incompatibility. Both are sequestered as the
second and twelfth entries on the wax, respectively. The expanse
between each gives them a chance to narratively breathe on their own
while remaining linked as Brazilian rhythm-backed exotica.
However, the best tendered script on A Matter of Time
is “Snow White”, an examination of Laufey's Icelandic-Chinese heritage
and its associated societal pressures. She had approached this topic
before with “Letter to My Thirteen Year Old Self” on Bewitched. This time, Laufey explores what she’s endured and her growth thereafter.
To my ear, Laufey is an emergent retro-modernist genius on
par with Swing Out Sister, Pizzicato Five, Raphael Saadiq, and Emma
Bunton. While their genres differ, that commitment to consistency, craft
and “something old made spectacularly new” unites them. Similarly,
Laufey colours both inside and outside her established lines to create a
joyful tension on A Matter of Time. It makes for the boldest chapter in her artistic story yet.
