“From the Start” by Laufey, Monday, June 19, 2023

People that complain that there is no talent in music today are overlooking quite a few artists. My blog is full of talent young musicians from Betty Who to Charlie Puth who may not be the most popular musicians, but they have used classical and technical training to write and produce their own songs. Of course there are tons of other examples, but I mention both Who and Puth because, like Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, Icelandic singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, these artists are all alumnus of Berklee College of Music, a prestigious school that has just as many famous graduates as famous dropouts.

ME AND YOU AND AWKWARD SILENCE. Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, better know by her first name Laufey, was born to a Chinese mother and an Icelandic father. Laufey was raised on classical and jazz music. Her mother is a classical violinist, and her grandfather, Lin Yaoji was famous a violin instructor at the Central Conservatory of Music in China from which he graduated and also studied at the Moscow Conservatory of Music in Soviet Russia. Laufey followed in her mother's footsteps, but rather than violin, she plays cello, even performing as a soloist when she was 15 with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. But classical music is only at most half of the 24-year-old artist's influence. Today's song, the latest single from her upcoming album Bewitched "From the Start" sounds somewhere between bedroom pop and jazz. It's her father's jazz records, particularly female artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, that inspire this sound. With a steady start to her career, including participating on Ísland Got Talent (a national talent search the equivalent of America's Got Talent for the nation of Iceland), recognition from Willow Smith and Billie Eilish, and Spotify playlist inclusion of her latest hit, "From the Start," music is certainly ready for a jazz revival.

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Laufey described "From the Start" as "the ultimate friends to lovers song for all your delusional daydreams." It's a summery sort of tune that feels both easy on the ears and taxing on the soul. The calming bossa nova guitar is a constant sense of calm. Laufey's voice is wistful, taking listeners along on a mostly smooth journey, though there is a bit of turbulence the way that she sings a few of the phrases in the song. The first example occurs in the first verse. When she sings "awkward silence," Laufey emphasizes kw sound and adds an extra nasal sound to the end of word awkward. The song sounds awkward again when the speaker says "she's so perfect. Blah, blah, blah." While I don't find these lines annoying, they certainly take you out of the flow of the song. And that's the point because a slow piece of music like "From the Start" probably wouldn't be remembered without the singer's vocal performance. And certainly fewer people would think about the words--about the theme of falling in love with your best friend. The inner monologue proposed in this song contrasts to the kind of girl who plays the best friend when the person she loves falls for someone else. Still, regardless of the awkward bits, the song is certainly going to be a nice song to listen to by the pool with an ice cold beverage this summer.

Read “From The Start” by Laufey on Genius.