Complaints that this isn't a dance album and doesn't sound like "Levels" may still be filed, but they're better applied to True. "Can't Catch Me," with Matisyahu and Wyclef Jean, is reggae, but the kind that Michael Franti and Radio Margaritaville can agree on, while "For a Better Day" is the same kind of electro and soul that Moby took to the top of the charts. "Talk to Myself," with Sterling Fox, steps into the '80s with a modern version of Matthew Wilder's "Break My Stride," and the rest of the prime moments come from the mainstream pop side of the spectrum, with the Martin Garrix and Simon Aldred ( Cherry Ghost) feature "Waiting for Love" leading the pack. "Touch Me" is a bell-bottomed delight that owes a debt to the disco movement, specifically Chic, and if the strange "City Lights" is the album's most arguable track, fans of Meco and Giorgio Moroder could argue it's spot-on with its robot vocals and tiny melody. Country-pop is back in EDM remix form when "Broken Arrows" offers a spirited Zac Brown song with Avicii pumping it higher during the whirlwind bridge, but "Pure Grinding" is a highlight that would have never fit on True, and it lives up to its claim to be "funktronica" with double-dutch lyrics and '70s electro in support. Two years later, his LP Stories is another genre-busting affair that fits in better with mainstream radio than it does the club, but everything iffy about True has been perfected here, as the producer revisits the song-oriented album and lets the outside genres freely come and go. In 2011, he broke through with "Levels," a bleepy and bright bit of EDM that could have been his signature hit, but then his 2013 album, True, was a country-pop and folk-inspired affair that thrilled his fans with its inventiveness, but left others as cold as a meandering Mumford & Sons remix effort. 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.Swedish DJ Avicii is a strange case. Having struggled with life in the spotlight, Bergling died in April 2018 of an apparent suicide. In 2015, Bergling released his second studio album, Stories, and in 2017. Perhaps his restlessness behind the boards was a way of trying to encompass a broader range of emotions than is common in dance music. Tim Bergling known professionally as Avicii was a Swedish DJ, remixer, record producer. 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. 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. But Bergling had his eye on something bigger than even rave culture. 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. 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. 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.
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