Remembering Avicii: A dive into some of his best unreleased work

Avicii would’ve turned 34 today. The Swedish maestro keeps on living in people’s hearts, thoughts, and minds. To celebrate his birthday, let’s look back on some of his most extraordinary unreleased work.

5 long years have flown by since the passing of Avicii, to many people arguably the greatest producer of all time. The supremely talented Swede left behind a plethora of unreleased music and collaborations. Most of those tracks have found their place all across the internet, sentenced to life without an official release but beloved by fans and electronic music enthusiasts alike. We can only imagine what success would Avicii enjoy with those tracks if he were among us today.

We have carefully picked 5 of his best-unpublished tracks, originating from 2013 (the year of Avicii’s global surge) all the way to some of his last studio sessions in 2018:

Before I Say Goodbye (with David Guetta & Afrojack)

Originally made as a beat, Before I Say Goodbye was played only once by David Guetta during the Avicii Tribute Concert in Stockholm in November of 2019. Afrojack and Giorgio Tuinfort were also a part of the creation. The week Tim passed away, David Guetta wrote a song which was sung by Amanda Wilson on top of that beat. Stockholm was the first and last place where the track was played.

We Burn (with Sandro Cavazza)

Avicii’s 2016 Ultra Miami mainstage set was full of Sandro Cavazza, his long-time friend and arguably his most frequent collaborator. We picked We Burn because it perfectly shows how chords were one of the most breathtaking aspects of Tim’s production arsenal. No wonder the crowd went absolutely crazy when he played it in his monumental Ultra Miami 2016 set.

Loving Feeling (with Cazzette & The High)

Loving Feeling was one of the last tracks Cazzette worked on as a duo before disbanding in May of 2016. For this one, we embark on a more groovy side of Avicii’s portfolio. Loving Feeling would, for example, work perfectly as a Purple Disco Machine hit nowadays which simply shows how much ahead of its time the track was. The High definitely serves as one of the pillars of the track with an amazing vocal performance.

Black & Blue (with Aloe Blacc & Mac Davis)

Everyone remembers Avicii’s game-changing Ultra Miami 2013 set. Not everyone loved the inclusion of a country band which was proven by a furious fan backlash on social media. Wake Me Up stole the show during that performance which overshadowed Black & Blue, a cute crossing between electronic music and country music sung by the late Mac Davis and the legendary Aloe Blacc. The drop was later used in Avicii’s track Liar Liar.

Can’t Love You Again (with Tom Odell)

There is no greater proof that Stories is an incredible album than Avicii excluding Can’t Love You Again with Tom Odell from it. It is everything the listener would hope to hear from it: a serene love song with an exquisite vocal and piano performance. It is also a part of a huge list of high-profile collaborations that never saw the light of the day.

We’ve barely scratched the surface with these 5 picks. The catalogue of unreleased music Avicii possessed is rivaled maybe only by Eric Prydz. One thing is certain. Avicii’s craft will always be relevant and an inspiration to dozens of new and aspiring producers around the globe. As long as his artistry lives in all of us, he will certainly be alive, at least in spirit.

Happy birthday Tim.

Image Credit: At Night Management