Calling all orchestra and Disney enthusiasts! Laufey, an enchanting singer, has been meticulously crafting a new album, “Bewitched.” It has finally, in all its grace, arrived.
Icelandic-Chinese singer-songwriter, Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, — more commonly known as “Laufey,” pronounced “LAY-VAY” — started her career by posting videos on TikTok and YouTube of her playing her cello and singing original songs. As she gained popularity and support from her fans, she aided in the recultivation and restoration of the jazz genre.
Laufey, with her soft-singing and her stylistic orchestral instruments, will make your daydream fantasies of being a Bridgerton character, a prince, princess or toad in a Disney movie feel as though they are coming true!
She started releasing music with her first EP, “Typical of Me,” which is a compilation of the songs that launched her to fame. Her EP was set out to sound old-fashioned with a slight rustle in the background — an accidental element present in many pre-recorded songs released in the 2000s — making each song seem straight out of the ‘70s.
After a couple of hit singles, like “Let You Break My Heart Again” that was produced in collaboration with the Philharmonia Orchestra, she released her first full album: “Everything I Know About Love.” The album is about “dealing with growing up,” as Laufey denotes in an interview with online magazine The Line of Best Fit. She adds: “All the songs are based on my personal experiences in the past years, but the way I write about them is like fiction … I try to create magic out of those moments.”
And indeed she does! One of her most played songs on that album is “Falling Behind,” which has a melody and rhythm that matches a mix of bossa nova and Brazilian samba. Listening to this song will cast you into the world of “Rio,” where two rarefound blue macaws define the oxymoronic universe as they see it.
In her newest EP, “California and Me,” Laufey pre-released four songs before the official release of “Bewitched,” each one enrapturing your soul and entangling it around her finger as if you were at the lantern festival in “Tangled.”
Starting with “California and Me,” Laufey encapsulates the tragedy of lost love and what it means to be the second option, showing how Laufey and the Philharmonia Orchestra understand the ruthlessness of heartbreak. However, they play in such a majestic and soft tone, which reveals Laufey’s personal perspective on love: She is a hopeless romantic, still looking for her one true soulmate.
“Oh, the burning pain / Listening to you harp on ‘bout some new soulmate / “She’s so perfect” / blah blah blah / Oh, how I wish / you’ll wake up one day / Run to me / Confess your love”
“Oh, the burning pain / Listening to you harp on ‘bout some new soulmate / “She’s so perfect” / blah blah blah / Oh, how I wish / you’ll wake up one day / Run to me / Confess your love”
Laufey in “California and Me.”
Her hopeless romanticism is further proven in the next song of her EP, “From the Start,” which encompasses the romantic misfortune of Cupid flying an arrow at another person instead of you.
“Love is driving me a bit insane / Have to get this off my chest / I’m telling you today / That when I talk to you / Oh, Cupid walks right through and / shoots an arrow through my heart / And I sound like a loon / but don’t you feel it, too? / Confess I’ve loved you from the start”
Her “I’ve loved you from the start” truly resembles what it means to be a hopeless romantic; falling in love at first sight, but struggling with the nonreciprocity.
The next verse is of her scatting, which Laufey, in a Genius interview, recalls as the inspired product of Ella Fitzgerald, a world renowned jazz musician and present-day figure of jazz.
After what felt like an everlasting wait, Laufey has returned, better than ever. On Sept. 8, 2023, Laufey released her full album, “Bewitched,” although she leaked it all over social media prior to release for her fans.
Not surprisingly, Laufey has broken the “All-time record as the biggest debut for a Jazz album on Spotify in history, surpassing “Love For Sale” (1.1 Million),” reports Pop Data Music.
Her tracklist opener, “Dreamer,” is about the worthlessness and frustration with modern dating — the disappointment derived from unstable and inconsistent short-term affairs. She seems to believe in the mantra that dating in the 21st century is a replica of speed-dating in which individuals get together for a short period of time without romantic obligation and move on to another person just as quickly.
“I’m giving up / I’m throwing in my hat / I can’t take another lifeless little chat / I’m moving up into a cloud, into my fantasy”
I’m sure Laufey isn’t the only one to resort to their fantastical imagination when things don’t go as they would’ve liked. At least in our dreams, magical things can happen.
The ninth song on the tracklist, “Promise,” is especially soul-tying. Laufey wrote and produced “Promise” with Dan Wilson, the person whose genius was the backbone of “Closing Time,” an extremely famous song in the ‘90s.
The song starts out with the soft accompaniment of a piano to ease her listeners into the melancholic arrangement of her emotional thoughts.
“So I didn’t call you / For sixteen long days / And I should get a cigarette / For so much restraint / No matter how long I resist temptation / I will always lose”
“So I didn’t call you / For sixteen long days / And I should get a cigarette / For so much restraint / No matter how long I resist temptation / I will always lose”
Laufey in “Promise.”
Ever heard of a comfort person? It’s that one person who you can’t let go of no matter how hard you try. It’s sort of like your first love: The feeling is permanent — the butterflies linger. Laufey promises herself that she’s going to get rid of these emotions towards this person; however, regardless of how hard she tries, she can’t help but long for them.
Then, she adds the drums and string instruments as she sings in forte to emphasize the unbearable yet inescapable feeling of loving someone you can’t or shouldn’t have.
“It’s worse to be nothing with you / I’ve done the math / There’s no solution / We’ll never last / Why can’t I let go of this?”
Of course, Laufey would not be a true jazz musician if she didn’t cover an infamous jazz song sung by her inspiration: Ella Fitzgerald.
“Misty,” originally composed by Erroll Garner on the piano, was first sung by Johnny Mathis, later covered by Fitzgerald and finally, covered again by Laufey.
Here’s one word to describe “Bewitched:” Absolutely majestic. Sorry! This album deserves the emphasis of a second word.
There has not been a single album yet where Laufey has not indubitably stunned her audience with her vocal progress and left an irreversible mark on both the music industry and people alike.
Until her next album, fans and new listeners alike will be raving over the musical creativity and composition of “Bewitched.”
Rating: 5/5
