Following the release of her 2025 album A Matter of Time, Icelandic singer Laufey has finally dropped the deluxe edition. The release intends to explore the chaotic and complex side of relationships and self-discovery by building a Cinderella-esque narrative. The clock is about to strike midnight, and everything fabulous will disappear, but there is still life to figure out in that final hour.
Laufey is an artist who refuses to stick to one sole genre. Every album is like a musical lasagne with layers of classical influences and microgenres. And in A Matter of Time, she combines it all.
Her musical range shows in all four bonus tracks. Despite the diverse influences, ranging from swingy jazz and highly syncopated bossa nova sounds to the more classically trained piano ballads and intense string quartet sections, Laufey always combines her inspiration to create an almost unestablished genre.
Madwoman
For the first deluxe track, Madwoman, Laufey opted for a lobby music feel, harnessing those bossa influences. The drums consistently provide a woody, dry click with brassy, low-key cymbals during the chorus and soft, muted rumbles as a transition between sections.
The vibraphone ringing through adds some melodic texture and chillness to the track. However, the strings that occasionally play are arguably the most interesting part. They weave in and out, never playing in a consistent manner, but inevitably escalate, pushing the song towards its close.
The ending is hypnotizing, itself: continuous, dark, and moody strings lead the section, paired with chimes, and smooth piano glissandos. It’s like stepping into a dream and spiraling, a very fairytale vibe. This fits perfectly with the lyric: ‘Hypnotized me as we spoke/Purely mythological with the ugliest soul.’
Between the description of an enchanting, hypnotic love that’s turning her ‘mad’ and the reveal of the man’s manipulative nature, the juxtaposition reflects A Matter of Time’s overarching theme that love is not a straightforward fairytale. In terms of Madwoman, the world is portrayed as very rose-tinted.
Additionally, Laufey speaks directly to the listeners in the following line: ‘You would think that he’s holding me for ransom.’ In comparison, ‘you’ in every other line refers to the man she is singing about. So, the fourth wall is broken intentionally as Laufey wants the listener to help break her from the spell.
How I Get
Following on, the single How I Get is the most similar to Laufey’s previous albums out of the four. It could easily fit onto Bewitched. It acts as a cool-down from Madwoman: ‘Human nature is strange/I know you’re bad for me.’
This draws a comedic callback, like she really was cast under his spell. Now, she reflects on these intense feelings, reacting honestly, admitting this love isn’t right for either of them.
Thinking of Bewitched, there could be a reference to its track Promise too: ‘I should get a cigarette/ For so much restraint,’ compared with How I Get’s: ‘I don’t smoke cigarettes/ Don’t do things I’ll regret.’
In both songs, she is yet to be grounded in terms of looking for love. She lives by the same principle, restricting behavior and emotions, proving the spontaneous words in Madwoman were an out-of-character experience. The use of the strings again, in this song, enhances this feeling, representing clouded judgment as they shiver and drone continuously.
I wait, I wait, I wait
The penultimate track I wait, I wait, I wait, is a classic piano track (at least one is always bound to appear on a Laufey album). The lyrics reflect on the two that preceded, this time, exploring insecurity towards herself in the relationship: ‘I wait for the tears when you smile/ Search for the lies out of your teeth/ I wait for the day when you finally say/You’re out of love with me.
Because of the emotive imagery, the song has a very dark tone compared to others, but those Bossa references are brought back in to lighten the mood. The ‘bam, bam, bam’s towards the close are a perfect example of how Laufey always lets her musical knowledge shine through, even the most simplistic instrumentals.
Laufey’s low, gloomy yet angelic vocals give the record its most beautiful moment. Its soft sound replicates that of a lullaby, or a song that someone would close their eyes and sway along to in an empty room. Although it’s not as musically experimental as those that preceded it, the simplicity allows the emotion to seep through and connect with the rest of the album, building on the album’s exploration of the vulnerable side of love.
I’ll forget about you (in time)
I’ll forget about you (in time), is both the title and opening lyrics to this track. The listener has no prior setup to the events of the song; it gets right into it. The line acts as a statement to the audience, as well as her love, reassuring them that she will get over the heartbreak eventually, adding depth to the meaning of A Matter of Time.
Instrumentally, the song takes a long while to move anywhere. The strings are the main attraction of the song. During the track’s duration, they appear to be building up to some big epiphanic moment, which never comes. Instead, they quiet down, and a piano solo appears. It’s beautifully haunting at least, but a little disappointing that there was no catalytic moment to end it.
Perhaps that was the whole point: to represent that there won’t always be one big moment connecting everything in life together; that love is chaotic and messy; that visions of a fairytale ending aren’t realistic, but that she’s made peace with that fact.
The most meaningful part of this album is the many ways you can interpret the lyrics as well as the musical sections. Laufey curates everything in order to convey every emotion she wishes to express.
Final Thoughts
Overall, these four songs add another element to A Matter of Time, one that reflects a fairy tale expectation. Not just lyrically, but the hypnotic instrumentals drag the listener right into the center of the story.
The album held up to its intentions incredibly. The deluxe songs stand as plausible representations of the chaos that would ensue if someone were figuring out their entire life in the final hour before the clock strikes twelve, and all of these magical moments and experiences will inevitably fade away, Cinderella-style.
