Laufey - A Matter of Time (2025)

Laufey has a lot to live up to with her third album, following 2023 sensation Bewitched—which earned her a Grammy and the somewhat reductive label of "TikTok jazz sensation." But "From the Start" broke jazz streaming records, and Laufey is able to sell out Madison Square Garden. Conductor Gustavo Dudamel loves her. So does Barbra Streisand. So do Olivia Rodrigo and swarms of young fans. Now, the Berklee-educated singer—who has called the Great American Songbook her bible—is gracefully skirting boundaries.

It's fair to call A Matter of Time a pop record, but there's more to it. "Snow White" starts with just Laufey (simplified pronunciation: "LAY-vay") and cottagecore-style acoustic guitar before relatively restrained strings sweep in. "The world is a sick place/ At least for a girl/ The people want beauty/ Skinny always wins/ And I don't have enough of it," she sings. Laufey, whose mother is Chinese and father is Icelandic, is painting a self-portrait and doesn't feel compelled by perfection; there's a real warmth here, and a lack of sterility. Her anxiety is not Gen-Z specific, as she sings on cool-jazz "Clockwork" about being overly nervous about a date that might be The One: "He just called me/ Said he's running late/ Like me, he probably/ Had to regurgitate." Yes, "regurgitate"—and she even applies a showy little run to the word. But this isn't some ring-a-ding parody; there are no wink-wink, knock-you-over nudges, even when Laufey sugar-coats curse words.

She sings about a friendship breakup with all the turmoil of a romantic one, looking back with heartache and a little horror, on "Castle in Hollywood." The most traditional pop song of the bunch, it finds Laufey sounding awfully similar in phrasing and melody to Taylor Swift and underscores the fact that Swift favorite Aaron Dessner is a producer and instrumentalist on A Matter of Time, along with frequent Laufey collaborator Spencer Stewart. It's hard to ignore other pop-star similarities. There's Sabrina Carpenter's pin-up playfulness on "Tough Luck," a buttery kiss-off ("The proof says you're tragic as fuck") with a big pay-off bridge. Charged pop-rock ballad "A Cautionary Tale" has melodramatic shades of Chappell Roan. There's an Amy Winehouse feel to torch song "Silver Lining," powered by Rhodes piano, dampened drums with a retro air, and a sense of doom.

Laufey also has fun with genre experimentation, trying on a country jingle-jangle for "Clean Air," smoky cabaret for "Forget-Me-Not" and bossa nova for zippy "Lover Girl." And "Sabotage" finds Laufey fluttering like a Disney heroine even as she warns, "It's just a matter of time til you see the dagger/ It's a special of mine to cause disaster"—and chaotic strings crash in like a jump scare.

TRACKLIST

1 Clockwork
2 Lover Girl
3 Snow White
4 Castle in Hollywood
5 Carousel
6 Silver Lining
7 Too Little, Too Late
8 Cuckoo Ballet (Interlude)
9 Forget-Me-Not
10 Tough Luck
11 A Cautionary Tale
12 Mr. Eclectic
13 Clean Air
14 Sabotage