Album Review: Bewitched | Laufey
Disney adults are gonna love this
Born half Icelandic and half Chinese, 24-year-old singer-songwriter Laufey has been hard to avoid. Her second studio album, Bewitched, was released in early September to critical acclaim. The record takes a modern-day approach to the jazz and bossa nova genres. It applies to the mainstream, making her stand out in the pop music landscape.
Neither of us is well-versed enough in the jazz genre to critique Laufey on whether or not she’s nailing the sound she hopes to emulate. To anyone who knows the genre, you might be pretty disappointed in this record. For a pop music lover, this would be interesting. Still, anyone who likes jazz might find Laufey to be a little bland in her vocal style. Her harshest critics might find her a watered-down Gen-Z version of Norah Jones. However, we admire her ambition to return a new genre to popular music. In a recent interview, she mentioned one of her inspirations in who else but Taylor Swift. “Swift has done for pop and country what I hope to do for jazz.”
If you’re worried about your ability to not make it through an entire jazz record, look for soaring choruses that feel almost adjacent to Swift’s Enchanted on standout guitar-driven track Lovesick. Or take a listen to TikTok-streaming hit (143MM and counting) From The Start.
Laufey’s beautiful and quiet yet mesmerizing vocals lead the project and carry us through its 14 tracks. Thematically, the album focuses on young love in ways like Second Best and the heartache of youth and wishing you’d be kinder to your younger self on Letter To My 13-Year-Old Self. The lyrics on this record emulate the diary-style confessions of Gracie Abrams or Lizzy McAlpine. Still, vocally, Laufey can seamlessly blend a starker instrumental to her songs. It’s so interesting to see a rising artist who is so different than other rising musical stars in that she plays with an orchestra and makes TikTos with Gen-Z-coded captions:
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Many of the songs on this record are paired with this nostalgia and romanticism of the jazz genre to her current-day confessional lyrical style. The record goes down easy. It almost feels like she’s purposely crafted a Disney-like magic, particularly on the title track. Here’s to hoping Bewitched and her future outputs are intrigued by a fresh voice resembling past music.
Check out our favorite tracks, listen to the album, and see our scores below:
Can’t Miss: Promise, From The Start, Lovesick
You Can Skip: Misty, Serendipity, Must Be Love
BY THE NUMBERS
Bennett’s Score: 5.7
Carson’s Score: 6.8
Album Score: 12.50
Notes from Bennett:
Look I enjoy Jazz as much as the next pop album reviewer but I just don’t quite see the excellence here. I admire the goal in mind, to try and blend Pop and Jazz together to make good music. I just don’t think it happens very well all the time.
Lovesick is a good example of an interesting pop jazz song, sonicly, formulaicly, and lyrically, it is a pop song. A pretty average one to be honest. Where it works well is in its chord changes in verses in bridges, (gonna pretend I know what I’m saying here) using 2 chords & diminished chords to bring the jazz vibe, and also in her vocal melody singing like a Jazz singer at times.
This is one of the rare albums where the most popular song is its best. From the Start is a excellent, well-crafted attempt at Jazz-Pop. It’s totally rooted in Jazz and then structured as a pop song and written as such. I’m a big fan here. also, vocal scatting on a pop song (and pulling it off) is a big deal.
Bewitched is so Disney Princess Core, Which makes sense I think if Luafey wants to do the pop-jazz thing then it makes total sense to brand yourself as that.
Notes from Carson:
NEVER has an album transported me to make me feel instantly rich and sophisticated. It’s fun to find a modern artist whose music is so elegant and classy and something I could put on for the whole family to enjoy. It’s giving Christmas and turtleneck and red wine.
It's hard to skip a certain track on this honestly because it’s the perfect record to have on in the background while you make dinner or wind down for the night. I’m going to be spinning this a ton this winter. I really like this album it’s so gorgeous.
A lot of these songs feel like Billie Eilish could have sang on her last record Happier Than Ever. A good example is Haunted from Laufey sounds like Billie Bossa Nova
My one critique is that a lot of the songs on here sound the same but I honestly think it would be hard to not do that within the restrictions of the genre.
Top 3: Lovesick, From The Start, While You Were Sleeping
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