Laufey epitomises a charming new era in contemporary pop, as classically-trained musicians – including Wasia Project and Ena Mori – are finding an audience online thanks to their forward-facing take on traditional jazz. The 25-year-old multi-instrumentalist has had a banner year: earlier this month, she scooped a Grammy for her masterful second LP ‘Bewitched’, following a recent NME cover and a sold-out world tour. Her teenage listeners see themselves in her heartfelt songs; Laufey’s music embodies the chaotic life changes that young lovers cycle through, using surging rhythms to evoke both romantic enlightenment and despair.
This simpatico with her following can be felt at the first of three sold-out nights at Hackney’s Earth Theatre. In the coming months, Laufey will return to London for further shows at the Roundhouse and Royal Albert Hall, meaning this evening feels like an underplay. The contrast between the screams that greet the Icelandic-Chinese artist’s arrival on stage, and what comes next, is telling. Spread across wooden, seatless tiers – with many fans sitting cross-legged as though at a school assembly – they respond to Laufey’s songs not with breathless cheering, but polite clapping and nods of approval. Jellycat plushies are raised above heads after a dreamy ‘Valentine’; there is nary a phone in sight.
A powerful exchange of emotional understanding continues to play out between artist and audience. Lit in soft-focus blue tones, Laufey waltzes between the double bass, piano and guitar, with support from a taut and characterful string quartet. In a pair of red Mary Jane shoes, she pirouettes from one side of the stage to the other during ‘Dreamer’, acting out the lyrics with her hands (“No boy’s gonna be so smart as to / Try and pierce my porcelain heart”). The crowd, meanwhile, act as a quiet but ever-present backing choir, their voices barely rising above a whisper.
The cozy daydream vibe of ‘Promise’ is matched by a backdrop of twinkling lights – the sole element of production drama this evening. Given the way Laufey delivers her songs via a permanent Hollywood smile, it’s easy to forget how sad some of them are. Each one contains granular detail, from a newspaper-reading crush left behind on the Tube (‘Beautiful Stranger’) to tears on a steering wheel (‘California and Me’). She begins the former by telling a story about one of her first-ever visits to the capital, before seamlessly (and cheesily) segueing into its opening chords – a graduate of the Taylor Swift school of Song Introductions, clearly.
Briefly joined by her identical twin sister Junia on the violin, Laufey’s bossa nova-flecked hit ‘From The Start’ proves a shimmying highlight, but it is during ‘Letter To My 13 Year Old Self’ that she hits a vocal and emotional peak. She outstretches her arms as she sings; the room falls so silent that you can hear a bartender printing receipts in the back corner of the auditorium. “One day you’ll be up on stage / Little girls will scream your name,” she repeats, her deep, crystalline voice ringing out unencumbered.
Laufey played:
‘Fragile’
‘Valentine’
‘Second Best’
‘Dreamer’
‘Falling Behind’
‘Beautiful Stranger’
‘Promise’
‘Like The Movies’
‘Nocturne (Interlude)’
‘Let You Break My Heart Again’
‘California and Me’
‘Bewitched’
‘Haunted’
‘Best Friend’
‘Lovesick’
‘From The Start’
‘Letter To My 13 Year Old Self’