A Matter of Time: The Final Hour
Laufey, a popular Icelandic singer, released a new album on April 10th. This new album is a deluxe version of her older album, A Matter of Time, which was released last year on August 22nd. The deluxe version includes five new songs, one of which already has a released music video: Madwoman.
Seems Like Old Times, the warm, bittersweet feeling of rekindling a past love. Time freezes during every interaction as if reinforcing the feelings of the old times, “And it's still a thrill, just to have my arms around you.” The cozy familiarity of those past intimate moments, despite the potential pain of separation recurring again. An old love rekindled as if time hadn’t passed, “Seems like old times dinner dates and flowers.” As the present blurs into the past, as cherished memories cloud her mind of their intimate connection. Despite the passage of time, the thrill of their love remained, making time feel blurred.
Madwoman, the frustration of being misunderstood while being labeled as too much for loving too passionately. A toxic love cycle where she’s “mad” or irrational for returning to a relationship that feels cursed, gaining the madwoman label. A toxic cycle of a push-and-pull relationship that breaks and reforms. The line “You would think that he is holding me for ransom” highlights how trapped she is by her own feelings, as she has no control over her irrational feelings toward a man with an ugly soul. The song expresses anger as she experiences the societal tendency to brand passionate and emotional women as unstable.
How I Get, the loss of self-control and identity when falling into an unconsuming addictive love. The contrast between her normally grounded life and the irrational behavior she adopts for one person. The line "That's just how I get" shows how at this stage she doesn’t recognize or approve of it. It highlights the contrast between being disciplined and rational, yet abandoning those boundaries for a specific person, leading to obsessive, "disorienting" love.
I Wait, I Wait, I Wait, explores cynical anxiety in relationships where she anxiously waits for the relationship to come to an end. The song is a perfect example of the fear of losing love without purposely sabotaging it. As she waits for the other shoe to drop she prepares for the inevitable relationship to fail, exploring insecurities that lead her to sabotage a good thing in her life. The lyric “ I wait for the thunder in sunshine, wait for sickness in health” only shows how she can not accept happiness by always waiting for it to come to an end.
I'll Forget About You (In Time) is a bittersweet ballet about the painful, slow process of moving on from a toxic relationship. She is finally moving on, but the painful feelings only come back, echoing the lingering. The song is considered a centerpiece for the theme of time passing and the inevitability of moving on. The line “You’ve broken me, I don’t believe I’ll fall in love again” expresses profound heartbreak, capturing the feeling of being ruined by someone.
