Latest Release
- OCT 18, 2024
- 2 Songs
- True · 2013
- The Days / Nights - EP · 2014
- True · 2013
- Stories · 2015
- SOS (feat. Aloe Blacc) - Single · 2019
- Levels - EP · 2011
- Levels - EP · 2011
- AVĪCI (01) - EP · 2017
- TIM · 2019
- Stories · 2015
Essential Albums
- The audacity it took for an EDM DJ of Avicii's profile to begin his debut studio album with a country-fried, foot-stomping anthem featuring Aloe Blacc is astounding. But “Wake Me Up” felt like Swedish mega-DJ Tim Bergling was fulfilling a promise he had made when he announced the album—that this album wasn't just going to be a replication of his club anthems “Levels” and “Silhouettes.” Throughout True, you can hear Avicii rooting around for influences outside of the club's dark confines. His search found him in odd musical lands—country, nu metal, gospel—but it was all in the pursuit of making a record that Avicii had been ruminating on for years. Not everyone was happy about it. As the legend goes, when Avicii took the stage at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami to play “Wake Me Up” for the first time live, some of the crowd was enraged by the rendition, which featured a live instrumental band and vocalists. (Blacc performed with him, as did co-writer Mike Einziger, Ben Kenney, and José Pasillas from the band Incubus.) There was a moment when it seemed like Avicii's grand experiment might go haywire, that people just wanted him to shut up and press play. Thankfully, that didn't turn out to be the case. True became a foundational EDM album, charting in dozens of countries before going platinum in the US. It also announced Avicii as one of the pre-eminent talents in the electronic music scene, and put his curiosity and heterodox taste on full display—a promising career that was cut tragically short by Bergling's death in 2018. True was exactly what Avicii had wanted it to be, and he was being rewarded for his vision.
Artist Playlists
- The festival-rocking hero transformed lush EDM into epic pop.
Compilations
Appears On
More To Hear
- Friends and collaborators reflect on the life and music of Avicii.
About Avicii
From the moment that Tim Bergling first appeared on the EDM scene, it was clear that the young Swedish producer stood out even among so many talented countrymen. Early singles—2009’s “Alcoholic,” 2010’s “My Feelings for You”—juggled melodic sparks with an upstart’s swagger, and it didn’t take him long to hit his stride. In 2011, “Levels” caught the world’s ear with a clever Etta James sample-flip and an unforgettable chord progression; no song better captures dance music’s optimism at the dawn of the decade. But Bergling had his eye on something bigger than even rave culture. With his debut album, 2013’s True, he veered unexpectedly into a jubilant fusion of house music, soul, and bluegrass, and if songs like “Wake Me Up” and “Hey Brother” initially puzzled fans, they quickly reset the terms of what was possible in dance music—and pop. Two years later, Stories continued to play fast and loose with Bergling’s inspirations, dipping into disco (“Talk to Myself”), ’70s rock (“Ten More Days”), and even acoustic reggae (“Can’t Catch Me”), tapping guests like Wyclef Jean and Chris Martin along the way. Perhaps his restlessness behind the boards was a way of trying to encompass a broader range of emotions than is common in dance music. Having struggled with life in the spotlight, Bergling died in April 2018 of an apparent suicide. He was just 28 years old. For all the giddy joy of a song like “Levels,” it’s the tension between yearning and doubt that makes songs like “Trouble” so powerful—and it’s that depth of feeling that will be his legacy.
- HOMETOWN
- Stockholm, Sweden
- BORN
- September 8, 1989
- GENRE
- Dance