Against my better judgement, I'm currently writing a big band arrangement of "Dreamer", the opening track on jazz-pop Laufey's breakout album Bewitched. As I posted here a few years ago, I saw Laufey at Newport a couple of years back, and was, well, underwhelmed. But a lot of my students are obsessed with her- in our top band, there are more Laufey sweatshirts, on boys and girls alike, then Taylor Swift, Nirvana, and (name your pop act) combined. And I didn't quite get it. Much has been made of Ms. Laufey- I think my favorite take is Adam Neely's youtube analysis. And I think Adam does a great job getting to the "what" of Laufey, and why it pisses jazz musicians like me off- but it doesn't get to the why. Why did this particular artist break through with this particular throwback sound?
In writing this arrangement, obviously, I'm listening to Laufey more and more carefully than I have before. First the production is very slick. Her singing is gorgeous and intimate, like it's a crystal vase. And there's a lot of distant panned backgrounds, the gauzy sonic equivalent of the first couple of episodes of Wandavision. (Which if you haven't seen it, please go see it, it's amazing.)
It's taking me back to my teenage years, when I first fell in love with jazz singing when Shirley Horn released her first two albums on Verve in more than twenty years, You Won't Forget Me and Here's to Life. The second is more relevant here, as it's an album pairing Horn's amazing trio with a string orchestra on a collection of not too famous American, definitely retro songbook tunes, including "Wild is the Wind", "Here's to Life", "Estate", and probably the best known "A Time for Love". These are big songs about passion and love and loss- if "Where do You Start" doesn't tear your guts out, I question if you have any guts.
I know now that (I didn't then) that when you're a teenager, because of biology and hormones and all the rest, you feel things much more acutely than I do as a nearly 50 year old man. I could have a breakup now where someone figuratively and literally stomps on my heart and takes my money, and it likely wouldn't hurt as much as when my junior year sweetheart dumped me the first day of band camp. (I'm not rooting for the former, or trying to turn that person into a villain- she's a lovely person, and we made up when she went to college-it's just what it is). So Here's to Life was not just a lovely record (and it's a gorgeous record), it was, as the kids say now, giving me all the feels. And the fact that said on again-off again girlfriend junior year loved it too (Shirley Horn was our Valentine's Day present to each other) made it that much more intense.
There's one other thing I noticed in the production. When I listen to a lot of top 40 music today, whether it's Morgan Wallen or 21 Savage or Olivia Rodrigo (and this is not a judgement on the quality of the music, just the production choices), the production is very up front and aggressive. (I know there's better technical language, it's just escaping me) It's built to jump out of car speakers and earbuds and demand your attention (this is not new in pop music. See the Jackson Five's "ABC" or Bon Jovi's "Livin' on Prayer", or Beastie Boys "You've Got to Fight..." or, or...) Laufey, on the other hand, favors a more opaque approach. Listen to the piano interlude at the beginning of "Dreamer"- it's mixed to sound like it's coming from a quarter mile away. In general, her music is mixed and panned to sound gauzy, like you are listening through a veil. This gives it an ethereal, dreamy quality that not a lot of current pop music has, and again, I think, contributes giving my students all the feels.
And as I listen to Bewtiched with a more analytical ear, I had a sort of "aha" moment. While I don't think Bewitched is anywhere near the level of Here's to Life, it's a well written, well constructed album. And Laufey is very smart, and her very clever lyrics speak to all the joys, all the anxieties, "all the feels" that Shirley Horn spoke to when I was seventeen. (Though I don't think Horn, who never really had to deal with the internet, could've processed hookup culture and ghosting the way Laufey does.) It doesn't change my opinion of Laufey- I think she's really good at what she does. I just wish Samara Joy or Cecile McLauren Salvant or even Veronica Swift could live in my kids ears half as much as she does, since that all sing rings around her and have so more to say about the human condition. BUT I think I get her a little more now. Thoughts?
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