I can see the appeal, I think, and I almost feel the appeal. But it also, not really my vibe. I’ve done my listen, I went over the instrumental versions, I watched the Adam Neely video essay on her, I’ve got an opinion formed or forming. I don’t actually care too much about whether she is or isn’t jazz, that’s not relevant to my enjoyment of her, to how I listen to her. I don’t have enough of (read, any, really) a connection to the jazz tradition to be invested in that. I do think that the video was useful in helping me develop how I perceive genre and music as a channel for culture. Anyway, related to Laufey I do still think the video offered a useful frame by which to consider her. I’d recommend it to anyone interested for sure.
I don’t know if I would recommend Laufey to just anyone, though. Not that I wouldn’t recommend her at all, there are definitely people I can think of for whom she’d be a good fit, but it would have to fill some particular function in their listening, or match into a particular vibe of person. Generally speaking, she’s not really my jam. That’s all it is, really. She’s not my jam. The music she makes is slow and a little bit dramatic and it doesn’t hit me. It’s good, she’s a good singer, the arrangements are nice, I just don’t love it. It doesn’t hold my attention. Honestly, I liked the instrumental versions… not better, but they felt like a better fit for how I listen to music. Like, as instrumental music I’m okay with mostly liking it, or with it just being pleasant and background, and acknowledging that I’m gonna tune out and that’s fine. In that frame, it works great. If I want music that grabs me or makes me think or makes me feel something, I’d best look somewhere else. This is not that.
So, yeah. I respect her, I can get behind it (or at least parts of it) in theory, even though in practice it isn’t my thing at all. That’s pretty much a perfect fit for something in the C range. I think a C- should work fine
Laufey complete, now listening to beabadoobee
tunafruitsandwitch 