It was only a matter of time before the singer-songwriter Laufey released her new deluxe album: A Matter of Time: The Final Hour. The new release features five new songs along with the original tracklist. Laufey is known for using elegant instrumentals with a jazz pop sound to beautifully blend generations of music. Music artists with a similar sound to Laufey are Clairo, Olivia Dean and Liana Flores. Laufey’s third studio album was released on Aug. 22, 2025, and its re-release was launched on April 10, 2026. A Matter of Time: The Final Hour emphasizes Laufey’s ability to introduce younger generations to the genre of jazz.
The original version of the album followed the ups and downs of love, not only in romance, but in self-love and love between friendships. Songs from the album like “Clockwork”, “Lover Girl” and “Silver Lining” vocalize the highlights of being in love. Each has their own snazzy feel, and they all illustrate stories of romance and the bliss of finding someone that makes you feel whole. The song “Lover Girl” is the most streamed song on the album on Spotify.
“I wrote the song while I was in Tokyo,” Laufey said in an interview with Nadia Alexeev. “I was missing a certain someone and it hurts being away from someone you love.”
On the other side of the spectrum, songs like “Too Little, Too Late”, “A Cautionary Tale” and “Sabotage” are heartbreaking songs about the difficulties of love and the end of a relationship. In the song “Too Little, Too Late”, Laufey shares the story of a fallen out romance; the story ends with the narrator seeing the person they love get married to another. With lyrics like, “I should be who you’re engaged to,” and, “Lost my fight with fate/A tug-of-war of leave and stay,” the song captured my heartstrings and indulged me in a classical sorrow.
The album’s view on love isn’t just black and white. The song “Snow White” discusses the internal struggles for women to experience self-love. It emphasizes the insecurities of women, society’s expectations for women and beauty standards. One of the most heartbreaking lyrics of the album is, “The people want beauty, skinny, always wins/And I don’t have enough of it, I’ll never have enough of it.”
Another song from the album, “Castle in Hollywood”, is about a friendship fallout and the pain of losing a close friend. The storytelling and symbolism within the lyrics was the highlight of the song. An example of this is, “I thought that lilies died by winter/Then they bloomed again in spring.”
In her interview with Nadia Alexeev, Laufey discussed “Castle in Hollywood.”
“This is a song of lamenting a certain time of my life and wishing things hadn’t gone in a bad direction,” Laufey said. “For me specifically, I had this friendship breakup around this time where it felt like the last of my girlhood.”
Once “A Matter of Time: The Final Hour” launched, the album took an even darker turn. The new tracks of the album’s re-release are “Seems Like Old Times”, “Madwoman”, “How I Get”, “I Wait, I Wait, I Wait” and “I’ll Forget About You (In Time).” These songs were even more tragic additions to the album. “Seems Like Old Times” was a simple cover of the 1940s classic by Carmen Lombardo and John Jacob Loeb. The song was the least flavorful of the other tracks, but it still helps revive old jazz to new generations.
The rest of the bonus tracks were despairing songs of toxic love. “Madwoman” had the most upbeat and groovy tone out of the five, discussing the feeling of wanting someone even though they’re not good for you. A lyric that summarizes the song perfectly is, “But there’s something so vexing ‘bout you/It’s like the gods above us don’t approve.” Laufey even released a music video to the song featuring actors Lola Tung and Hudson Williams, figure skater Alysa Liu and Megan Skiendial of Katseye.
The final track of the album, “I’ll Forget About You (In Time)”, was the most despairing song on the album. With the use of classical orchestra, Laufey is able to express the rise and fall of emotions in the song with the use of tempo and speed. The bridge of the song shows how sad the album truly is:
“I knew I had to do it/Break it off and now I feel ruined
You treated me so awfully/I don’t do know what you saw in me
You’ve broken me/I don’t believe I’ll fall in love again.”
Laufey’s “A Matter of Time: The Final Hour” is a beautiful story about the ups and downs of fondness between lovers, friends and oneself. The use of lyricism and classical instrumentals allows the listeners to feel a variety of emotions that anyone can relate to.
