“From the Start” by Laufey

Laufey is a singer and multi-instrumentalist from Iceland whose discography dates back to 2020. In-between then and now, she has dropped one studio album, “Everything I Know” (2022), which fared pretty well in Iceland and the United States. And the same label that backed that project, AWAL, also supported the release of “From the Start” on 11 May 2023.

The Lyrics of “From the Start”

The lyrics of this piece do not imply that the vocalist is a victim of unrequited love per se. Yes, she is smitten by the addressee, who obviously does not share those same types of feelings. But it doesn’t read as if he is flat-out disinterested in Laufey. 

Rather, this appears more as a case of the vocalist allowing their relationship to become firmly entrenched within the friend zone, on top of the addressee having other romantic interests.

Or at least that’s one way of making sense out of the first verse especially. Initially, Laufey comes off as if she is in love but is leaving it up to the object of her affection, who’s now her bestie, to read the signs and come to that conclusion himself. But later, in the chorus, the singer rather puts forth that she ‘confessed her love from the start’. 

So there’s a bit of confusion concerning that particular aspect of the narrative, i.e. how long that the addressee has actually known that the vocalist is diggin’ him.

But conclusively, there seems to be two things we can take away from this song. One is that said addressee has grown comfortable with the idea of Laufey being a friend as opposed to a lover and doesn’t appear as if he will change that disposition anytime soon, if ever. And secondly, as the result of falling in love with someone who is not mutually interested, the vocalist finds herself suffering accordingly.

“Oh, how I wish you’ll wake up one day
Run to me, confess your love, at least just let me say
That when I talk to you
Oh, Cupid walks right through
And shoots an arrow through my heart
And I sound like a loon
But don’t you feel it too?
Confess I loved you from the start”

Summary of “From the Start”

The long and short of the song is that is the singer is in love with a man who doesn’t feel the same way about her. Owing to this, he chooses to keep things between the singer and him purely in the in the friend zone.

The term “friend zone” is used to describe the situation where one person in a friendship wants to enter into a romantic relationship. However, the other person does not want to take it to that level.

So what we have here is a one-sided situation where the person’s romantic feelings are not reciprocated. This results in the person with unrequited feelings being “zoned” into a category of just being a friend.

Being placed in the friend zone can be actually a challenging situation to navigate. And why is this so? This is because it is often marked by feelings ranging from frustration to confusion to disappointment.

Sometimes this can lead to major misunderstandings that end up messing with the integrity of the existing friendship.

Did Laufey write “From the Start”?

Laufey wrote and produced this song with American musician Spencer Stewart.

What genre is this song?

It is of the Jazz variety. We can also place it underneath the Bedroom Pop category.