Avicii
The Days/Nights

Release Date: 2015 | Tracklist

Swedish house and globally-renowned DJ/Producer Avicii let us down badly in 2013. His debut studio album "True" was nothing short of sub-par, with the additional element of country infused into his once-fantastic dance material with tracks like "Wake Me Up" and "Hey Brother" having a major part in it's massive criticism. Their is no doubt it wasn't entirely bad, tracks like "Heart Upon My Sleeve" used the now-trendy EDM formula pretty decently but unfortunately "True" didn't have much of that prevail: instead it was an offering of mostly disappointing, generic dance music that wasn't praised much by fans, yet the media lauded the record and attempted to make it something it wasn't. 2014 wasn't that great either: Avicii tried to cover the numerous cuts and scars that his debut album endured with an album that essentially had him do remixes of his own material from "True", which aside from his remix of "Addicted To You" ended up seeing far worse criticism than the original album did! These last two years have been nothing short of a down-right collapse or freefall for Avicii, who in 2011 released one of the biggest EDM singles of all-time undoubtedly with "Levels" and was thought of as a EDM icon at the time. With another year on the start-up with 2015, Avicii again has another chance to make up to fans and to EDM in general, to regain his respectability with his brand-new EP "The Days/Nights" which released a bit before the New Year began. You know what he does with this opportunity? He squanders it, and spits out a four-track album that has all the feelings and flaws of "True" and the remixes album merged into one.

If you were expecting anything from Avicii in the positive sense for this album, you will find nothing of the sort in this album. This short 4-track offering which clocks in less than 15 minutes is an absolute example of how Avicii seems to not be learning from his mistakes: instead he continues to make them if not more, and conjure up the same ol' generic material that has had numerous fans on his bad side for quite awhile now. "The Days" starts the album off, with another average beat that sounds awfully similar to the Canadian pop singer Shawn Hook's "A Million Ways" with it's sub-par synths and chord progression. The production and song structure has been mediocre for some time now, and it doesn't cease to continue with awfully predictable concepts with a quiet start-up, then a boring buildup that doesn't differ from the rest of the EDM field aside from a select field: with it to be capped off by a pretty terrible main section bombarded by supersaw synths, only to rinse and repeat. It couldn't be more laughable, with it's visibility prominent in "The Days" and the Robbie Williams-sung "The Nights". The lyrical quality in the latter track is as horrific as it gets, touching on how you better live your life and "remember each moment" of it.

The only question that should be asked here is this: are you ***ing kidding me? Are you really serious? It's nothing short of disastrous and unacceptable, it's understandable that you're trying to send a good message with your music but the way it's done is deserving of facepalms. The instrumental of "The Nights" doesn't too much to help ease the flaws of it's horrific lyrics: with its elements of country with the acoustic guitar stirred together with a plethora of 'whooshes' from its generic and lame main section. The point is, country-EDM just doesn't work most of the time and the album reasserts that. Aside from the key change, its so eerily similar to "Wake Me Up" and the minor hit "Hey Brother", with the horn in the main section, their is no mistaking it's similarity to both. It's the ultimate mashup of two horrible tracks merged into one 3-minute track. The even more unfortunate part about "The Days/Nights" is the fact that their is only two new tracks from Avicii in the album, with the final two being remixes of those first two songs. The remixes aren't worth the time to talk about, it's merely there to just kill time off the final latter of the album, filler tracks if you will and that doesn't say much. It is nothing short of lazy from Avicii, only adding to the multiple jabs that is only increasing from the meritocracy he continues to bring.

What you learn from "The Days/Nights" is this: Avicii isn't learning anything from his mistakes, in fact he's only making more and more. You don't see him progressing as a DJ/producer, but only see him continue to regress and keeping the engine on the freefall train up and running. This album exceeds the substandards made from the failures of "True" and the remixes album, and that's saying something. You only hope that Avicii would come to his senses and avert back to the style of "Levels" and "Silhouettes", but unfortunately it doesn't look like that Avicii will ever come back. This album is nothing more than a slap in the face to EDM fans, and an absolute reassurance that Avicii will continue to put out lame music material out there for the mere sake of putting it out. There's nothing innovative about "The Days/Nights" at all, only further missteps and regression. It's best to avoid this one, and to avoid Avicii for a long time too. His fall from grace is undoubtedly for real, and possibly permanent.

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