Since the sad news of Avicii’s demise in April 2018, fans have been devastated for two reasons. One was about his death. The second one – and this sounds really selfish – is the question of whether we’ll ever hear new music from the late Electronic music producer and DJ, at least his unreleased ones, again. Fans were aware Avicii was working on a project shortly before his death.
Earlier this year, it was announced that a posthumous album would be released shortly after his one year memorial. In mid April, a song “SOS” featuring Aloe Blacc was released off the forthcoming album. The album is titled Tim, which is Avicii’s first name.
Tim dropped a few days ago after a pre-listening tour around 5 cities in the world. Tim is in so many ways sentimental as most posthumous works are meant to be. Having died at 28, with so much ahead of him, Avicii’s gift to the world was cut short. And, Tim is a consolation and probably a project of closure. Now you know you won’t hear something new from him again.
This feeling is what clouds your perception of the work. Every line of beat, every line of lyrics, seems like it’s saying goodbye and it is hard to contain. The track titles in themselves are indicative of this departure. The 12-track album has about six track titles – “Peace of Mind”, “SOS”, “Heaven”, “Hold the Line”, “Heart Upon My Sleeve”, “Never Leave”, “Fades Away” – either hinting at a certain kind of freedom or talking about letting go or leaving. The album is hard to separate from emotions. We’re excited about getting a new work from him but we’re also sad we’ll never hear from him again.
The beats are familiar. Typical Avicii. But this time, we don’t want to dance, and the album doesn’t try to make us.
The album features numerous artists, most of whom Avicii had previously worked with on earlier projects. Agnes & Vargas & Lagola appear on multiple tracks.
Tim will mean different things to different fans across the world. To me, it means “goodbye” just as much as it means “thank you”. Avicii and his art will be dearly missed.