“From The Start” of her album to the end, Laufey’s new “Bewitched” album enchanted her fans with songs about love and romance, tied in with a fusion of classical and modern jazz tones.
Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, an Icelandic-Chinese singer released her second album, “Bewitched ” on September 8, 2023, leaving many fans jazzed with excitement.
As a kid, jazz and classical music had a huge influence on Laufey since her family enjoyed music as well. She had a dream for the future where she could bring back classical jazz to modern music.
Her debut album was recorded with Iceland Symphonic Orchestra, putting both classical and jazz elements in the songs. After her first album launched, she realized that her fans really enjoyed the songs with jazz standards.
For her second album, she wanted to add a modern twist to the typical jazz genre, so she could break the barrier between older and newer generations to jazz, according to an interview with Laufey and the Grammy Awards.
“For my first (…) album, I always had this goal and dream of bringing jazz back to my generation. Even though I’m writing songs that sometimes sound like old jazz standards, the lyrics are very modern. (…) I think that relatability is what connects young listeners.” Laufey said.
Since its release, with currently over 5.7 million streams, “Bewitched” broke the all-time record as the biggest debut for a Jazz album in Spotify history. As of September 9, 2023, there have been 145,856,215 all-time streams in the album.
Out of her fourteen songs, some of my favorites from the tracklist included “Dreamer”, “Second Best”, “Lovesick” and “Nocturne (Interlude).”
“Dreamer” is the first track off of “Bewitched”, starting us off with a jazzy, coffee-shop like waltz intro with dreamy notes of piano floating in the background. This song explores how the singer wants to detach herself from the heartaches she experienced from boys and love, making her a dreamer. She sings about how she’d prefer to be “alone at tea” while she’s indulging in her fantasies and states that no boy could “pierce her porcelain heart,” showing strength and realization to the causes of her disheartenings.
“Second Best” follows “Dreamer” with a light and softer tone, displaying a story about unrequited love and the heartbreaking realization of it. As the singer looks back at the relationship she had, lyrics such as “you walked a little faster, left me behind” and “kissed me with somebody else in mind” showed that her lover seemed to care for another more than her. She admits that she “settled for less” due to her overwhelming love and should’ve “left (them) behind.” Throughout the song, she highlights how she loved her partner, while they seemed to see her only as “second best.”
“Lovesick” creates a lively scene filled with desire and longing, as the singer expresses how she “fell in love in just three nights,” making her feel lovesick and heartfelt. She recalls “those November days” and illustrates a moment with her lover “when the gold rays fell on (their) skin and (her) hair got caught in the wind,” with a burst of emotion and endearment. “In the morning,” the singer “mourns” over the memories that she had, giving a bittersweet ending to the song.
“Serendipity” is a wonderful song that conveys a deep connection between the singer and her lover as they fall in love in the city. The literal definition of the word serendipity is “a positive or lucky event that happens by chance”. Laufey depicts this with phrases such as “four-leaf clovers and lucky dimes.” This symbolizes how the lover believes that fate is the cause of their relationship as there had been so many occurrences that brought them together, ending with a happy conclusion with echoes of serendipity in the outro.
Overall, I would give this album a 10/10 because each of the songs has a romantic theme accompanied by meaningful lyrics and emotion about our feelings with love.
I would recommend Laufey’s “Bewitched” album to those who are into themes of romance and young love because there would definitely be some relatable songs. Laufey’s style of music is a refreshingly new take on the jazz genre that others would enjoy, so I encourage you to give it a try!
