Laufey’s newest album captures both her greatest musical strengths and weaknesses.
Icelandic jazz certainly hasn’t reached the same heights as New Orleans jazz. Despite this, the jazz-pop singer Laufey has managed to bewitch the world with her unique musical style. After her participation in The Voice and the release of her first album in 2022, Laufey has managed to carve out a cult-like following among Gen Z. Unfortunately, her newly released second album will be unable to hold the world’s attention.
Bewitched opens with “Dreamer,” a 60s-inspired jazz-pop piece, a song that begins with an acapella chorus of Laufeys, a chorus later reduced to one voice singing over a piano and drum. Although only three and a half minutes long, the song seems to last throughout the duration of the album. Every song following “Dreamer” sounds near-identical to the opening piece as Laufey softly sings about love over one or two accompanying instruments. She changes the lyrics and sometimes swaps out instruments, but the overall sound remains the same.
Out of the fourteen songs, there are only two exceptions to this minimalist style: “Haunted” and “Bewitched.” “Haunted” contains a beautiful section of strings, which die out after the beginning to be replaced by a guitar and Laufey’s Fitzgerald-like voice. They return here and there throughout the song, adding a beautiful, complex, and, not to be too on the nose, haunted quality to the song. “Bewitched” is similarly structured. The piece opens with an grandiose, Disney-like orchestral excerpt in collaboration with the London Philharmonia Orchestra, one that reappears – much subdued in grandness but not in beauty – between sections of acoustic guitar. This departure from Laufey’s usual style is a resounding success. “Bewitched” and “Haunted” are not the only pieces that go in new directions; she additionally experiments with bossa nova in “From the Start,” a style of jazz Laufey once previously (and successfully) explored in her previous album with “Falling Behind.” While still simple and very in-style for Laufey, the piece has a degree of energy derived from the layering of instruments not found in the rest of the album.
These songs paradoxically highlight both Laufey’s talent and the underwhelming sound of Bewitched’s remaining pieces. It’s difficult to listen to pieces such as “Misty” and “Must Be Love” after listening to her stronger songs. The rest of the album is minimalistic, basic, and, at times, strongly ambient. None of these are intrinsically bad qualities. The choice to write these pieces in such a way is logical, as previous Laufey songs have found success due to these features. But after listening to one song in this style, listening to the rest of the album seems pointless, as each song sounds the same as the previous and following one.
Laufey certainly does minimalism well. However, this album makes listeners reconsider whether minimalism is the style best for her to pursue. “Bewitched” and “Haunted” strikingly contrast the rest of the pieces, almost all of which are simply ballads comprised of Laufey’s voice and an accompanying instrument or two. Although Bewitched has its moments – and strong moments at that – there are few highlights in the album. The majority of its songs are not distinct enough from one another to remember, or to even listen all the way through. Most listeners will leave thinking they just listened to an album created by an AI fed with Laufey’s music. But for die-hard fans of Laufey’s style, this album will be received with great blind enthusiasm and love. Hopefully the next album will be more deserving of that love.