A Very Laufey Holiday Laufey

• 1 Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town 02:39
• 2 Santa Baby 03:02
• 3 Winter Wonderland 02:12
• 4 Christmas Magic 03:10
• 5 Christmas Dreaming 02:33
• 6 The Christmas Waltz 02:47
• 7 Love to Keep Me Warm 02:38
• Total Runtime 19:01

Info zu A Very Laufey Holiday

The album is particularly short, it’s five songs totalling 13 minutes and 13 seconds, so there isn’t a ton of material to cover; but I think that Laufey has exceptionally packaged the Christmas Spirit into this album. Typically Laufey albums are pretty low seeming in energy. She’s a power alto, so many times she’s singing in her lowest register. And most of her songs feature instrumentation that is more common for jazz standards than most pop music, so there’s naturally a slower tempo. This album definitely recreates this, but it’s got a happy twang seeing as it’s a Christmas album. I don’t necessarily feel as though this album is groundbreaking, it is what I would expect of something made for Christmas, but it does have Laufey’s general charm which makes it more darling.

Track 1 - Santa Baby

This is probably my favorite song. It features many chromatic lines that ascend in thirds divided between the three layers of vocals. There’s very sparse instrumentation, it has a drum kit, bass and interestingly enough a flute and bassoon!

Track 2 - Winter Wonderland

This one starts off with a beautiful trumpet line with a straight mute. It is probably the most typical Christmas song off this album. I keep picturing that scene from Glee in season 4 when you can see inside Santana, Rachel and Kurt’s apartment and watch them decorate for Christmas. This song has sleigh bells, modulizations, and an ending on an unresolved chord - many of my favorite things.

Track 3 - Christmas Dreaming

I think this is the most essentially Laufey piece on this album. Most of the vocals are covered by two, the melody and a closely intertwined harmony. It’s interesting, because when you break down the harmony, just the two voices alone sound strange together. Take the chord on ‘dreaming’ in the first verse. The notes are a Gb, and a B, which together create a fourth, which is very dissonant. But if you add the accompaniment of the guitar (playing just an Eb maj chord) then you get a first inversion B major chord, which doesn’t sound very dissonant at all! I just think it’s interesting how Laufey uses her voicings and instrumentation to make such a funky but also beautiful melody.

Track 4 - The Christmas Waltz

I like this song a lot because it’s in ¾ which happens to be my favorite time signature, so I’m a little biased. It has a very typical Laufey intro with a string chorus, and then once the voice comes in the instrumentation gets much more sparse (guitar and snare.) Honestly, this song is just super cute because it has a children’s chorus in it which seems very Charlie Brown Christmas like to me. Also there’s a really funky piano lick in the middle of the verses which is very Liszt esque.

Track 5 - Love me to Keep me Warm

This song is a collaboration between Laufey and dodie, and honestly what a perfect pairing. Both have very soft aesthetics, Laufey utilizing more jazz standards and deep tones, and dodie more so in her 2019 ukulele era. But their duet is absolutely beautiful, their voices blend perfectly together. There’s also a clarinet in this song and their tone is very beautiful (except when it goes over the break but it’s ok.) The song ends on another unresolved chord which I believe is a perfect way to end this album.

All in all I wouldn’t say this is terribly different from your usual Christmas album. But it feels very comforting, and for sure has that Laufey element and charm that she has mastered and that we’ve come to expect from her.

Laufey

Laufey
"As a musician, my goal is to bring jazz and classical music to my generation through a more accessible road,” declares the composer, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Laufey. In 2022, the Icelandic-Chinese artist’s trailblazing approach paid off, with a performance on Jimmy Kimmel LIVE! in support of her first full-length Everything I Know About Love, sold out tours of North America, Asia, and Australia, and she was the most streamed jazz artist of the year on Spotify.

The Los Angeles-based Laufey (pronounced lāy-vāy) continued her story by writing and recording Bewitched, her second album. Inspired by jazz greats and classical masters while possessing a point of view that could only be conveyed by a 21st-century twentysomething, Bewitched represents an expansion of Laufey’s sonic palette. Tracks like the breezy bossa nova cut “From the Start” and the smoldering string-assisted ballad “Promise” have classic songcraft and intricate arrangements that make them feel instantly timeless, while Laufey’s conversational lyrics give her music a relatability to the next generation of jazz and classical aficionados.

Laufey’s self-assured musicianship and deeply felt lyrics take the idea of “classic” music, whether it’s slotted as classical or jazz—or even chart-topping pop—and humanize it, creating a deep-seated connection with listeners that goes deeper than hitting “play” on a streaming service. “There are very few examples of artists who are onstage with an orchestra one day and making TikToks the next,” she notes dryly. Laufey’s straddling of those two worlds has put her in a singular place across music, and with Bewitched, she’s ready to ascend to the next level.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet