As a product of a musical landscape built upon micro-genres and musical niches, Laufey embodies the idea that artistic identity can matter just as much as innovation.

A singer-songwriter, classical cellist, guitarist, and Berklee College of Music alum, Laufey is a modern, musical jack-of-all-trades. She has cultivated a devoted, global fanbase with both her romantic, Gen-Z-inflected songwriting and her carefully curated social media aesthetic, blending playful TikTok trends with vintage jazz nostalgia. Indeed, part of Laufey’s seemingly universal appeal is her ability to repackage mid-century jazz aesthetics into an accessible sound that feels both timeless and perfectly crafted for the modern streaming era.

In her new single, “How I Get,” Laufey opts for a noticeably darker sound than her previous releases, leaning more heavily into moody harmonic textures and tense, subdued string orchestration.

The song commences much like any other Laufey ballad: A soft, cinematic string intro ushers in a lightly plucked electric guitar backing which supports her dreamy, breathy lead vocals. Indeed, the most intriguing aspect of the song is the transition between the verse and the chorus sections, with a dissonant, sliding string passage gradually morphing into a lush, sweeping orchestral backing. Here, Laufey paints a rather critical and uncharacteristic portrait of herself as she sings, “I don’t smoke cigarettes / Don’t do things I’ll regret,” claiming that she is ultimately “greedy” when it comes to her lover. This overarching sense of self-awareness, coupled with her ability to poke fun at her romantic tendencies, is perhaps the greatest strength of Laufey’s music, consistently resonating with young audiences who see their own insecurities reflected in it.

The song continues to maintain the same groove and atmosphere throughout, with only a slight build in intensity and energy. Lamenting that she is “caught up in a web” and “blinded by you,” Laufey seeks to capture a sense of helplessness that borders on melodrama. Yet, it is precisely this emotional palette that reveals the limitations of Laufey’s increasingly familiar formula.

It is evident that Laufey has settled in a comfortable, marketable intersection between classical, jazz, and pop music throughout her past few releases. However, although this intersection was initially novel for listeners, it ultimately satisfies neither jazz nor pop audiences — too harmonically and melodically tame for the former, and too sonically uniform for the latter. In particular, releases like “How I Get” make it increasingly clear that Laufey is slowly distancing herself from the jazz roots that formed the foundation of her initial virality. As a consequence, many of the jazz-inflected harmonies, grooves, and solos that once epitomized her sound have been smoothed out and replaced by recycled melodies, pop chord progressions, and dreamy yet bland orchestral instrumentation.

Whilst her music still carries an inherent sense of charm and nostalgia even without these jazz elements, Laufey’s core melodic and songwriting skills have evolved little to reflect this shift in musical direction. “How I Get,” like so many other songs on her most recent studio album “A Matter of Time,” features a melody that could be substituted into most of the ballads she has already written.

Ultimately, there is no doubt that Laufey will continue to be wildly successful in the modern streaming era. Her songwriting and vocal style are too distinctive to ignore, and any artist would envy the devoted and rapidly growing fanbase that she has meticulously cultivated. But it is nonetheless disappointing to see her gradually forgo the very musical tradition that she continually frames herself as an ambassador of.

The real question, then, is whether this is the final stage of Laufey’s artistic evolution, or if she can reconcile the jazz traditions that first defined her sound with the pop sensibilities she now seems determined to embrace.

—Staff writer Alexander J. S. Chieng can be reached at [email protected].