NEW MUSIC: Laufey’s “A Matter of Time”
SEPTEMBER 2025 | WRITTEN BY AMANDA ALDRIDGE
Just like clockwork, Laufey releases another hit album with pop and jazz-filled classical melodies
Icelandic-Canadian singer Laufey transports listeners into a whimsical land in her third album, A Matter Of Time, by blending classical instrumentals with ballads illustrating modern-day relationships. She explores the blossoming of dating and reminisces on her growth from failed relationships.
Opening her album with “Clockwork,” she sings about how dating someone new can eventually turn into something more —- “like clockwork,” she’s falling in love again. Similarly, in her hit-single “Lover Girl” and “Silver Lining,” she steps into a new role as a hopeless romantic and captures listeners with catchy-clap beats. She sings, “I’m in a reckless fever / love-struck girl, I’d tease her / thought I’d never be her / quite the job you’ve done on me, sir.” She, like most awaiting love, is almost surprised she gets to experience it now, with the instruments keeping an up-beat tune that matches her excitement.
Laufey sings about self-growth and discovery in herself and relationships in a beautiful and raw way, laying her insecurities out in “Snow White,” “Cautionary Tale” and “Carousel,” with sadness and ache laced throughout her voice. Opposite of her pop-filled hits, she takes her time to sing, “Can’t help but notice all of the ways I failed myself / I failed the world all the same.”
The 26-year-old singer adds a touch of strings and woodwinds to “Forget-Me-Not,” as she sings to Iceland, sung partly Icelandic. This delicate, whimsical ballad adds a very personal touch to her album, making it uniquely cultural and beautiful.
As A Matter of Time keeps ticking, we hear the familiar “ding-dongs” and “tik-toks” throughout the breathtaking instrumental, “Cuckoo Ballet - Interlude,” which blends the tracks on her album together in a powerful, harmonious way.
Passion and sassiness are clear emotions in her acoustic-guitar track, “Tough Luck,” as she punctuates her points, singing about the differences between being a man and a boy in her humorous track. Similarly, she calls out her irritations of men in “Mr. Eclectic” by singing “Just a stoner patronizing me, using piano underscores.
In her closing track, "Sabotage," she illustrates the screeching halt of relationships with dramatic, ear-splitting violins — in “a matter of time,” the relationship ends, and you’re left feeling like a chaotic mess.
If listened to on a loop, the sounds of a clock's “ding-dongs” will ring again, symbolizing how like clockwork, relationships begin again. Laufey doesn’t fail to create nostalgic yet relevant music. Her unique spin on classical music is what keeps her on the charts, and it’s only a matter of time before she does it again.
