On April 10th, 2019, Avicii’s posthumous album, Tim, was released to the world by his friends, family, and former collaborators. The album named after the legend himself, Tim Bergling, marks the third in his legacy following the previous release Stories back in 2015. When we wrote about Tim’s passing previously, it took time to put words to paper. This album release felt the same, reopening some old wounds.
Album releases after an artist passes always make us uneasy. Everyone’s creative process is different and it’s impossible to tell where things stand with unfinished work. The New York Times mentioned in their write-up that the songs themselves were 75-80% done by the time of Avicii’s death, meaning they were ‘basically done.’ Unfortunately that’s a pretty nebulous statement as things can change completely until a song is 100% complete. The final master/mix of a song can mean everything, and that’s the part left for interpretation by the collaborators. Artists who worked closely with Avicii in the past were deliberately chosen to put the finishing touches on the tracks with the idea they know his vision on a personal level. Everything feels right about this approach – at least the best intentions were there.
Personally, we’re struggling with this album in a pretty significant way. We want to listen, we want to take another lap around the sun with Acivii, but it feels empty. His family obviously knows what’s best when they pushed for this album to be released, and we accept that. It’s all for a good cause. Shortly after Avicii’s death, his family set up the Tim Bergling Foundation, in support of mental health and suicide prevention. This foundation was meant to carry on his spirit and raise awareness around the world. It was created so Tim Bergling could continue having a positive impact on the lives of others around the world.
We know the album has so much work put into it before Avicii’s passing.
We understand his family gave this album their blessing.
We believe it’s a powerful moment to raise awareness.
but we’re just not quite ready.
We’ll hear it on the airwaves, we’ll hear it at festivals, but it’ll take time before we sit down and run the album end to end. It’ll take time before we accept the inevitable once again, but we’ll get there. It’s our problem, and we’ll work through it.
Eventually.