
Think about this: if a record really connects, your audience is going to expand five-fold.’” It’s really only country that has something like that. The thing that makes America different, as far as being a fragmented music market, is that we have this thing called “country” that’s so big, it makes a massive impact on pop. That shit’s going to be huge.’ What you’re doing is you’re pushing the envelope so when you think about it, what you’ve just done is probably one of the most intelligent. “I said to, ‘Tim, let me tell you something. Nile Rodgers, who can be heard shredding on “Shame on Me” and Lay Me Down,” told VIBE recently his reaction to hearing the beginnings of Avicii’s new direction was cut and dry. But the tracks also work on the dance floor and in clubs, too.” This was me trying to make music that was emotional, and that you could listen to at your house, or wherever.

This wasn’t me making music to work in my shows. “I just wanted to make the most out of all the people I was working with, and I wanted to explore what I could do myself, personally, too. “I wasn’t into setting any boundaries on this album at all,” Bergling says. And just at a time when many skeptics were worried it was impossible for sonic change. It’s shining bright to make way for a new breed of music. He’s lighting a new multi-hued fire with True. Enter a mature Bergling who needn’t live in the fumes. The memory of Avicii’s 2011 rampant global sensation and Grammy-nominated anthem “Levels” has been snuffed out-smoked up the chimney of youthful playtime sing-alongs. Mae’s Adelle-reminiscent power lungs stab at the gut, ripping your heart out in the very best way possible.

He’s sprinkled the big-room sound methodically onto each track, including “Addicted to You” and “Shame on Me,” two emotive arias starring Oklahoma songstress Audra Mae. This is not to say Avicii’s token whirlwind synths are missing on the LP. The pandemic popularity of “Wake Me Up” is validation the Swede doesn’t need a rented whip to render horsepower. Today, the 24-year-old Avicii is not only almost old enough to rent a car, he’s also topped music charts in over 65 countries with the savagely trendy, “ Wake Me Up”-a tune that can adequately be described as “country-step.” A hybrid of progressive breaks and twanged vocals, featuring diverse collaborators R&B singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc and Mike Einziger of Incubus. A mere five years ago, young Tim Bergling was dabbling in sound mixology from his bedroom in Stockholm.
