On August 22nd, 2025, Laufey blessed all ears with an album called A Matter of Time. This album hit the charts on September 3rd, placing fourth on Billboard 200. We’re here to highlight some of our favorites as well as the ones we felt represented the album as a whole.
Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir, or Laufey, as she is commonly known, is an Icelandic-Chinese singer who combines the genres of pop, jazz, and classical music in her songs. A Matter of Time, Laufey’s third album and her most recent, has been described as one that “sets modern problems to classic melodies” by Rolling Stone. The album was well-received by many, though some say that her 2023 album Bewitched, which won her a Grammy in 2024, was better. In A Matter of Time, Laufey’s Icelandic background shines through the song “Forget-Me-Not,” which features Icelandic lyrics, an original and true-to-the-self touch that is refreshing in a world of so much copy and paste music. Now, to provide some highlights of the album, here are our thoughts on some of the songs we enjoyed in particular.
One of the songs that first caught our attention was “Snow White,” the third track on the album. The song features a bittersweet, simple melody that starts with only an acoustic guitar, with strings being added later. The lyrics describe the challenges, jealousy, and insecurities that come with being a girl. Laufey focuses on the concept that a girl’s worth is as much as her physical appearance, singing about the fact that she feels like she doesn’t “have enough of it”. These lyrics are very relatable, and represent the pressure of feeling like you aren’t enough compared to others extremely well. This piece is on the sadder side, but it captures the realization that insecurities are both human and common through and a tune that is easy to get lost in.
A second song that we found interesting was “Carousel”. This song is poetic in the way that it’s very open to interpretation, which is one of the reasons it stands out. With a slow and pleasant sound that is reminiscent of a Christmas song, it brings to mind a carousel in the way it seems to rise and fall. To us, the song is about the dangers and unpredictability of being in love, warning people to not get too close in fear of ruining the relationship. In one line, Laufey sings, “I’m waiting for you to see the things that are wrong with me.” This lyrics shows the fear of inevitably scaring off the other person and sabotaging the relationship, even while knowing that the fear could be irrational. Although it’s a serious theme, it’s important to think about and understand that we should let people in even with the risk of scaring them off. The song is a pretty piece that is good for both listening closely to interpret or just in the background.
One of our favorites is “Castle in Hollywood”. Our favorite part of this song is the line “I thought that lilies died by winter then they bloomed again in spring,” as well as the chorus in general. We like how it’s not a song about loving someone, but instead about friendships ending and having to become adults. This song (excluding adulthood) is moving to us, because everyone has had to leave someone behind or has been the one left behind. We love how Laufey can capture all these complex emotions in just one song – it’s incredible. She tells the story of how even though the other person did something wrong, she feels somewhat at fault, which is exactly how these situations can feel. This song adds so many more layers of emotional depth to her album, and seems to complete it.
Our final favorite from the album is “Clockwork”. We love this song because of the “ding dong” ensemble (even though it’s just Laufey) and it reminds us of Christmas music. The song has a nostalgic feel that we really love from any form of media. Two lines we really love are “like me, he probably had to regurgitate” and “I know, it’s irrational, at least I’m self aware”. We’re big fans of her sense of humor and the creativity in the lyrics. The way her fans received it makes the song even better, and we love all the edits around this song. We feel that it was very appropriate for the album to open with this song.
In short, we loved listening to A Matter of Time. This album gave us whiplash from the emotional rollercoaster we got to ride on. It doesn’t lack emotional depth or musical intelligence and understanding. We struggled to even pick our top songs. This album will forever be on repeat in our heads and hearts. We can only hope for more outstanding albums to come. We both would say that if you want to engage in forty-eight minutes of something a bit different to most of the music you hear these days, this album is for you.
