Since the announcement of Laufey’s new album A Matter Of Time in the beginning of 2025, the lauvers have been thinking and trying to guess what kind of album she was going to release: a sad and melancholic album or a romantic and silly album? Laufey can mix different feelings and melodies, putting all of them together and serving us a unique album.
CLOCKWORK
The love — with a little jazz — is in the air in the first track of A Matter of Time.
“Clockwork” is a great song to listen to on many occasions: on a rainy day, in a lounge or at your house to fill the space of solitude. The details begin in the instrumentals of the song, which makes the sound of a clock many times.
The song talks about falling in love with someone, the beginning of a love, when you regret your feelings, feel scared of meeting your destiny, that moment that everything about love is scary, and you consider giving up on that passion.
After some time — noticeable by the tic-tic sounds, giving the idea that the timing is passing — they go out on a date, drink a little bit, and she starts to enjoy, they get closer and start to stare at each other.
And then, they fall in love: she admits that she wants him forever and that they both have feelings for each other, and listening to this story warms our hearts, the beginning of a love being something so beautiful to see.
LOVER GIRL
Laufey is in her lover girl era, being in love with an amazing person, the kind that makes our hearts beat faster and makes us feel sick of loving so much — in the best way possible.
This song was first played in Brazil, during Popload Festival: this choice makes so much sense, once “Lover Girl” is a bossa nova inspired music, one of Laufey’s favorite genres of music, and a great inspiration for her compositions.
This is one of the few happy love songs by Laufey, where she talks about being deeply in love with someone: missing your lover all the time, feeling “sick of love” and being the person she never thought she’d be.
We can notice in the lyrics how she’s not used to having these feelings, as she describes the sensations of being this in love, looking at her cellphone and fantasizing about her lover all the time.
SNOW WHITE
“Snow White” opens the portal of the melancholy present in this album, mixing questions about mental health issues in the lyrics with a magical melody. This music is deep with many shades, many details to see and to reflect.
This song talks about being so small in a mind full of thoughts and judgments of yourself. The music video illustrates it well: she’s alone and small in a giant place, lost and alone, just like the way we feel with body distortion and insecurity, the theme of the song.
Comparing yourself is one of the biggest curses someone can live with, and this is exactly what the song talks about, how our mind just accepts the lies that the mirrors and the body standards tell us girls: that being pretty means being skinny, that a woman’s currency in society is their body, not their brains, their intelligence.
During the song, she compares herself to someone that looks like Snow White mentioning that she does everything she does, but having her body makes everything different.
CASTLE IN HOLLYWOOD
Breakups aren’t always about ending a romantic relationship, they can also be about ending a friendship. That’s what Laufey sings about in “Castle in Hollywood”. We talk a lot about the pain of breaking up with a partner, but the pain of losing a best friend, someone you really trusted, is also a terrible and traumatic experience.
This track has a nostalgic instrumental, just like the lyrics of the song express the nostalgia of two close friends that used to be close to each other like family. But, their end has come with the other friend telling lies about the friendship and the connection they had, all the great moments, all of their fairy tales.
“Castle in Hollywood” is sung from the point of view of someone who misses their old friend and is learning to live without them, but keeps thinking a lot about them, missing their moments, wishing that everything was all right and that they could at least have a conversation and solve the mess that happened.
We can understand in the song that their friendship was like a house. “Or the night I moved out in a hurry”, finishing this friendship was like leaving your own house as fast as you can, giving the idea that everything ended suddenly.
“Castle in Hollywood” is a feeling, just like all of Laufey’s songs, but the nostalgia mixed with the solitude make this one get deep into our soul and awake a lot of lost — and almost forgotten — feelings.
CAROUSEL
The nostalgia is hovering over this album. It is present through the melody of the songs, bringing a lot of feelings, and “Carousel” isn’t different.
Every single track of this album makes us travel into a world of fantasy, but gives us two different destinies: a deep cave full of melancholy, or a garden full of silliness, love and all of those amazing feelings described in the lyrics. This song is definitely the second destination.
The concept behind “Carousel” is a circus theme, beginning in the melody, chill with elements that evoke the songs that used to play in music boxes and kids carousels, not changing much during the whole song, to give us an idea of what a carousel is: something that keeps spinning around many times in the same place, but going up and down.
The lyrics tell us, once again, about a love story, how it is to love someone, a gentle love with a great person, but, telling the story with circus elements: being together with her forever is like a lifelong role, and mentioning other elements of her life like circus members: a city full of acrobats and clowns, illusory traps, Carousel definitely is one of the songs with the most magical elements present in the lyrics.
SILVER LINING
There’s nothing more romantic than a dance at a ball, and that’s definitely the vibe we felt after listening to “Silver Lining”. The instrumentals of the song are perfect for a slow dance, giving us the vibe of a prom.
“Silver Lining” is not a hard song to understand, it’s a love song that tells us about the moment when we fall in love with someone and allow ourselves to be silly, our inner kid to be out: that moment when you just stop wearing your social mask and allow yourself to be imperfect. It’s the kind of intense but also chill love, when you want to be with them everywhere, all the time.
The instrumentals of this song, along with the lyrics, create a romantic atmosphere: you feel like you’re in a ball dancing a slow dance with a loved person.
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
“Too Little, Too Late” is a cave of sadness, but there’s something entirely new about it: it’s sung from a male point of view. Laufey had a burst of inspiration while composing this song, adding many layers and references to other albums. As she said, her albums (or eras) never end, they just complete each other.
In the lyrics and in the instrumentals, this song is definitely one of the deepest and saddest songs by Laufey, and having a lore makes it even more intense, like reading a book: with a beginning, the plot and the ending. In this case, we have an “order” to understand the story that three songs tell us: “Bewitched”, “Promise” and finally, “Too Little, Too Late”.
The lyrics are full of regrets of the things he did in his past relationship, that took a while for him to notice. That’s why there’s a “Too Late” in the title of the song — he just realized, with the wrong timing, that he lost the love of his life, he lost the fight with fate.
Together with the regrets, it looks like his past actions still haunt him, the characteristics of the girl that used to be his lover still in his mind, making him crazy about it — and nostalgic too, that’s a feeling that’s very explored in this album — because now she moved on to a new relationship, that brings comparisons to himself.
“Too Little, Too Late” is the middle of a narrative, and we discover this by some details that appear throughout the song. The first one is a reference to “Promise”, in which a line says “So I broke my promise, I called you last night” that perfectly connects to the other song in these phrases: “Last night you called me, it almost killed me” and “I didn’t need the reminder of things I’ve done wrong, of promises broken fragility hidden in song”. So you can notice that — as Laufey mentioned in her social media after the releasing of A Matter of Time — everything is always connected.
The other connection is to the song “Bewitched” – it’s possible to listen to the melody at the end of the song – after the mention of the girl getting married to another guy. But, the biggest detail is: this song used to be about her past relationship, the narrator of this song, so, we can assume that both Promise, Bewitched and Too Little, Too Late are about the same guy — but having him point of view in the last song.
CUCKOO BALLET (INTERLUDE)
Laufey is magical in every single track, and the interlude of A Matter of Time isn’t different.
This interlude mix a lot of the songs of the album – playing these instrumentals and connecting it – but, even with a lot of songs together in this melody, Cuckoo Ballet (interlude) can be unique and magical to listen, it looks like you’re travelling through this album and all the feelings that were necessary to compose it.
The orchestral music, the magic and the mix of feelings shows us another passion of Laufey: classical music.
FORGET-ME-NOT
Listening to this song feels like ascending to heaven, as everything is just as magical as it is mythical: the instrumentals, recalling a little bit of Swan Lake with the orchestra — maybe in a reference to Tchaikovsky, the lyrics and the way she sings it making it even more sentimental and intense to listen to.
Laufey has a power with her songs: she makes us feel exactly what she’s expressing in her songs, while her voice captivates us and brings us that intensity just by listening to her — and “Forget-me-not” is one of the best examples to explain this burst of feelings.
This is a melancholic song that can be understood in different ways: you can see it as a love song or as a song about chasing a dream. In both interpretations, though, something is very clear: to achieve what you want — your love or your dream — you might have to give up on everything, even your homeland.
Interpreting it as a love song, we can tell that it’s a melancholic track, about a love that you did everything for, but for some reason, it didn’t happen, and you still miss your old lover with all of your soul. She evokes these feelings through a majestic instrumental and in the lyrics.
But, because of some details in the lyrics, we can see the song from a different point of view: a person leaving their homeland to follow a dream. Saying goodbye to the place where you grew up involves a mix of feelings, like fear, nostalgia, solitude, and she transmits these feelings in the lyrics by mentioning aspects from Iceland — her homeland — and her childhood: “I miss the wind, stone cold kiss on my cheeks” and “I’m still that child on a black sand beach”, both memorable characteristics from the country.
While talking about Laufey’s home, she sings half of the chorus in Icelandic — something entirely new in her songs.
TOUGH LUCK
“Tough Luck” is for the people who suffered in a relationship with an egocentric person — literally a walking red flag. This song talks about a toxic relationship — and having a tough luck on love — with breathtaking lyrics, but, with a joyful melody — like many Laufey’s songs about bad experiences in love.
The beginning of a relationship is always amazing, like a dream to both people, but, when you spend more time side by side with someone, the more you know your partner, you might find that people aren’t always the best. In “Tough Luck”, she’s dating the worst person you can imagine: he has cheated on a girl before her, he’s always blaming her for his own mistakes and he has an inflated ego.
This song has a differential compared to other Laufey’s songs: in the bridge, she starts to spill everything about the relationship, the way she felt and the truth about her partner, just like when you’re over a situation and just explode with a blast of feelings and thoughts about it. This bridge is faster than the rest of the song, mending words and exposing everything she went through.
“Tough Luck” is a realistic song — like many others she released — because many times we feel just like we need to break up before something even worse happens to us.
A CAUTIONARY TALE
“A Cautionary Tale” is a story about a love that didn’t end so well — it was an exhausting love for her. This track is for those who are intense and give all of themselves in a relationship — but regret these actions badly after losing their dignity by getting involved with someone with a compulsion to lie
A relationship ending because of lies always makes the other person look like a villain — and that’s exactly what happened here. When this happens you feel dumb, stupid for believing in someone like that, and worse — for giving all of yourself to someone like this.
The best part of the song is the bridge, when she says — in the most polite way — all the truths that you can imagine to the terrible person that broke her heart — and everything they need to hear.
MR. ECLECTIC
The bossa nova is once again present in A Matter of Time. “Mr. Eclectic” is one of the songs that talks about an experience that isn’t very nice — a guy being a poser and faking his interests just to get your attention. The dancing melody is typical of the bossa nova genre, but this song has a difference: the singer Clairo participates in providing backing vocals.
This song explores the situation when a guy fakes their interests just to get someone’s attention. But while he’s trying to fake his interests, he’s being pathetic, and the way he’s eclectic is superficial — trying to say quotes, thinking he’s poetic for this and talking about dead composers. It’s worse because the girl is already full of it, she’s used to having guys trying to win her over and always acting the same.
CLEAN AIR
Sometimes, people can be so toxic that it is necessary for us to breathe “Clean Air” again — and that’s what Laufey basically said in the 13th song of A Matter of Time. In this album, we already had bossa nova and jazz, and now we have some kind of country song — different from the music we’re used to hearing from her — but still in a very Laufey way.
“Clean Air” is basically a song about wanting someone toxic, who can pollute your life while still being “pure and clean”, out of your atmosphere. The country vibes in this song make people feel like they’re in a countryside, in the middle of nature.
SABOTAGE
Laufey said that “Sabotage” was the most personal song she ever wrote about herself — and that’s definitely one of the most relatable tracks in “A Matter of Time”.
This is definitely one of her songs with the most shades. In the instrumental of the song, the use of “jumpscares” plays with the feeling of a sabotage. And something interesting about this song is that she mentions the name of the album in the lyrics: A Matter of Time.
Her worst enemy is herself and her thoughts, that keep telling her lies. Even when everything is okay, when there’s no reason to get this anxious and overthinking, her mind finds a way to ruin everything.
The lyrics describe exactly how it is to sabotage yourself, to carry this curse with you during your whole life, but, better than the lyrics, the instrumental gives the exact feeling of a sabotage.
This song has an orchestral instrumental, beginning with the piano, very chill and calm, and then, suddenly, the violin interrupts it in a “violent” way, just like the intrusive thoughts in our heads, that just appear and go, giving us “jumpscares” — just as she does twice in each chorus of the song.
Sabotage doesn’t have a sung bridge, but instead it has the exact description and feeling of a mental breakdown, when everything is confusing, when there’s no exit at the end of the tunnel, when you think the world might explode, and it’s the end of everything.
OVERVIEW
Laufey always serves us with breathtaking and mythical albums, but this one will always have a special place in my heart — the mix of nostalgia, melancholy and love give us an explosion of feelings through 14 songs.
This album can be very personal for some people — including myself — because of the theming of the songs, the way Laufey express the feelings through her voice and the music chords, but it’s the truth in her words that’s really captivating, uniting people with the same emotions and experiences to feel connected, included and identified.
It’s easy to choose a favorite song in this album, but the song I was most excited to hear was “Forget-me-not”, a track that went viral on social media before the official releasing. This song is the definition of magic, the melancholy and the sadness in her voice and the melody truly captivated me since I heard it for the first time, coming to be one of my favorite songs ever.
I can see myself in some other music that has a special place in my heart too, like “Castle in Hollywood”, “Snow White”, “Sabotage” and “Lover Girl”. There’s nothing better than seeing yourself in many scenes, from the happiest to the saddest. Seeing yourself in Laufey’s point of view will happen sooner or later when you hear her songs — it’s amazing the way that she expresses her feelings and can touch our hearts with it.
This album was a mix of feelings and different music styles, putting together everything that Laufey loves the most in the world with a unique aesthetic.
The article above was edited by Isadora Mangueira.
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