On September 8th, 2023, rising jazz artist Laufey released her newest album “Bewitched.” The album contains a series of songs under the concept of love. Much like her other works, Laufey embraces the style of jazz music and its expressive sense of feeling throughout the genre, turning it into her own modern style alongside orchestral accompaniments. But what makes “Bewitched” different from her first studio album, “Everything I Know About Love,” is a manifestation of the certainty of one’s emotions as their experience with love has grown. While Laufey’s first studio album reflects the feelings of being “lovesick” and the hesitancy to start a relationship, her second one touches on the feeling of being “in love” and the conflicts or growth a relationship can bring.
A response to “Everything I Know About Love,” Laufey starts off her title song “Bewitched” with the lyrics “I didn’t know that much at all ‘bout love before / But now, I think I’m learning,” hinting her confidence in this new feeling rather than her hesitance in her album before. Parallel to her last album, “Bewitched” opens a new stage of love—the acceptance of this newfound emotion and the confidence one feels at expressing it.
“I wanted to write a love album and thought it [Bewitched] was the perfect word over, you know, being in love but feeling like there’s a spell being cast because the love is so confusing,” said Laufey in her interview on the Zach Sang Show, “It feels like you have not that much control over it and there’s some sort of ominous air over it.” Entangling the confusion of love in her title song “Bewitched,” she asks the question “What’s this new desire called,” citing this new feeling as a “spell on my heart.”
Through melodic harmonies and deep jazz instrumentals, Laufey’s lovesick lyrics connect with her listeners, asking questions everyone experiencing love can relate to. Whether its questions to a partner, “Don’t you feel it too?” (“From the Start”), to herself, “Who’ve I become?” (“While You Were Sleeping”), or to the universe, “What’s this new desire called?” (“Bewitched”) Laufey’s songs relate to listeners around the world as all her questions to the universe are universally asked in hopes of finding answers.
“I ask a lot of questions in my music,” stated Laufey, “it’s like there’s always some sort of air of curiosity around it…I think for me music writing is very much a way of discovering more about myself and discovering more about the world.”
Through her personal diary of affection, Laufey’s music grows worldwide, reaching people of all ages and backgrounds on the universal experience called love.
