The release of Tim Bergling’s posthumous ‘Tim’ album is inevitably bittersweet in the extreme. Whilst we’ve been gifted 12 tracks of pure, peak Avicii, the fact that he’s no longer with us infuses the music with a deep melancholy. His chords and melodies seem more yearning and lyrics like “Can you hear me SOS, help me put my mind at rest” and “You’ll lose your mind, standing on the battle line” are now heavy and poignant with meaning.
Avicii passed away in April last year, by which time the music that makes up ‘Tim’ was already largely finished. He also left behind demo recordings, notes, texts and emails about exactly how he planned his album to sound. Consequently, although there were originally no plans to release any further Avicii material, his songwriting collaborators Kristoffer Fogelmark, Albin Nedler, Vincent Pontare and Salem Al Fakir (Vargas & Lagola) have worked on completing the tracks without Tim, attempting to remain as close to his original vision as possible.
‘Tim’ is Avicii’s third album, the follow up to 2015’s huge ‘True Stories’, and its 12 tracks continue his musical journey to a more song-based approach, incorporating acoustic instruments and elements from outside EDM. There’s far less of the sparkling Daft Punk tributes that filled ‘True Stories’ and instead there’s more instrumentation and introspection.