- 2025-08-27
-
MUSIC
-
Laufey Releases New Album “A Matter of Time”
Icelandic-Chinese jazz singer-songwriter Laufey released her third studio album “A Matter of Time” on August 22, 2025 via Vingolf Recordings and AWAL.
It is her first album in two years since the 2023 album “Bewitched”.
The album comprises 14 tracks (standard edition 15 tracks), on which, she recorded with American rock band The National's Aaron Dessner as producer, as well as her longtime producer Spencer Stewart. Also, the album features Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
Laufey said of the album, “Every new album for me is a blank book of stories to write. I'm constantly thinking about classical and jazz, how to properly preserve them and pay homage. For this album, I just wanted to let my heart wander. People expect a pretty façade of girly clothes, fantastical stories, and romantic music. This time, I was interested in seeing how I could draw out the most flawed parts of myself and look at them directly in the mirror.”
She continued, “This album is an exploration of time, genre, space, emotion - a true portrait of what it feels like to fall in love and the self discovery that comes with it. With this album I wanted to show the world the multiple layers that can lie within a person. That the happiest of people have moments of chaos and the darkest of souls can have light.”
She added, “It's about the things you learn about yourself when you're falling in love, and all the anxiety and the trauma and the delusion that comes with that. And it's also about growth. It's about you think you're finished growing up at a certain age and that, but then you continue growing up in different ways.”- Laufey told Apple Music about the album, “Ultimately-and I only discovered this after the whole album was written—this album is about opening yourself up to a lover, or a person, or the entire world, giving them every single part of yourself. It's about acknowledging that it's just a matter of time until you find out every single part of me.”
She said of working with Aaron Dessner, “It was that new experience that I was craving for an album. I wanted to be so careful for this album about staying true to myself, and staying true to my roots, and staying true to my philosophy, which is ultimately keeping jazz music and classical music alive through my own music. But I was craving a level of speed and shine and newness for this album, and I knew I had to find one partner to work with who would bring that out in me.” -
Laufey explained some tracks for the album.
“Lover Girl” via Rolling Stone
“I've been dabbling with bossa nova since my first EP. 'Lover Girl' was so fun because I got to play around with it more. The song also seems like the most stable, lovey-dovey song on the album, but it's actually laden with anxiety.”
“Snow White” via Rolling Stone
“This was such an important song for me to write. At first, I was worried because I know that I have so many young women listening to me and to my words. And I remember clinging onto the words of singers that I loved like that. I never want to send a bad message out there. But my goal with this album was honesty, and how could I tell everyone to believe in themselves when I don't even believe in myself? It's not a nice song. It doesn't end with a ribbon: 'But you're beautiful and you'll be OK.' It was written at this moment where I just felt like how I look or how my body is mattered more than my brain, and that's a really disgusting feeling. I realized when I'm feeling bad about myself, no one can really talk me out of it. They try to tell me I'm wrong; it doesn't really work. But when my friends are like, 'I feel like shit too,' that's the best feeling in the world. So many of these songs are just transcribed from my conversations with friends. I hope people don't relate, because it's not fun to relate to, but if they do, I hope they feel seen.”
“Castle in Hollywood” via Rolling Stone
“Most women I know of had a friend breakup that's just as bad, if not worse than, a romantic breakup. Women have such a strong, deep empathy that it makes friend breakups, especially female friendships, really hard sometimes. It's a whole lot harder to be like 'Fuck you' to another woman who's changed your life in some way. I wish them the best, but I'm also messed up for life because of it. It marked the end of my girlhood, so I just wanted to write about it. I'm a whole lot more stressed about that song than I am about any songs about relationships.”
“Silver Lining”
“'Silver Lining' is a love song about being able to set your true personality free when you fall in love. Your inner child comes out and you are emboldened by lust. Even if it takes you to hell, at least you're with your partner.”
“Too Little, Too Late” via Rolling Stone
“I had so much fun writing this one. It might be one of my favorite songs on the album. It was one of those that I was rolling over at 2 a.m. being like, 'Oh shit, I need to add these lyrics.' It's not written from my perspective, it's written from a male perspective. That was a practice of understanding characters and another person. I wanted [the sound] to be tense the whole time. No distinct chorus, no distinct verse, just a constant uphill and then for it to bang out into a wedding scene. It's so dramatic.”
“Forget-Me-Not” via Rolling Stone
“This song sounds like a love letter to a guy, but it's a love letter to Iceland and about how I had to leave to chase my dreams. I love my country so much, and I hope it never forgets me. The Icelandic lyrics are just, 'Don't forget me, even though I'm leaving. I love you. I'll love you forever.' It's very simple, but it had to be in Icelandic. I tried an English version of it, and it just sounded dishonest. It felt like saying 'I love you' to someone in a different language. I recorded it in Iceland with the Iceland Symphony, and the melodies are based on Icelandic folk tunes. It was a very cathartic, healing song to write.”
“Tough Luck” via Rolling Stone
“I was excited to write a song that was that angry. It's a modern thing to be that angry in a song, but still have the most classical string writing that I've ever done. I tried to see how far I could push the two ends together. I had so much fun making that song for that reason. It was very easy because I didn't have to make many things up. I just said what he said in the song. I'm sure you know what you're getting into when you date me.”
“Clean Air”
“Since we're friends, I'm gonna let you in on a secret. This is a song I wrote over the holidays. I wrote it because- so I was in Iceland. It was really dark and really cold and great for songwriting. It really is, because you're just, like, kind of lying in half depression. Um, but anyways, I actually— this song is about the opposite. Somebody asked me, like, 'How are you doing, over the holidays?' And I was like, 'I feel like I'm just breathing clean air.' And in Iceland, like, literally, the air is really clean. So that was one of the reasons. But also I kind of felt like I was like, though I was lying in a pit. Pit of darkness. I was like, you know, I was letting go of all the bad drew of the last year and, um, walking into the new. And I was kind of like, you know, any. I want to write a song about that feeling of just like, you know, of Green Pastures waiting for you and that thought of going into a New Year and, like, shedding the skin of the old years, like, very beautiful to me somehow. So I wanted to write a song about it.”
Photo Emma Summerton - source : Apple Music
