Avicii - Wake Me Up (feat. Aloe Blacc)

Posted on Jun 20, 2013 in Bangers, Experimental, Progressive House

There’s a fine line between innovation and cheese and Avicii is walking all over it with his new single that you could call bluegrass-house, progressive country, or just strange.

Avicii dropped “Wake Me Up” as part of his highly unexpected set at Ultra this spring. If you hadn’t heard and were wondering how unexpected it was, I’ll leave it at this… there was a kazoo involved. People had already started to sour on the progressive house superstar before this rebranding, and honestly, this probably doesn’t make him anymore appealing to that crowd.

The problem is, “Wake Me Up” is almost too catchy. It’s very formulaic despite its different surface-sound. Avicii’s use of a simple, laid back guitar melody is straight-up exploitative and one can’t help but think of the disgust from country music fans everywhere. Then again, maybe this is an invitation and he’s only broadening the scope of EDM. Cowboy hats and kandi bracelets? Ok, this is getting horribly, horribly weird. In the end, “Wake Me Up” is catchy, and there is something positive to be said about the vocals.

As much hate as Avicii received for his Ultra set, and as much hate as he will receive for this track and probably most of his upcoming album, he should at least get credit for doing something unusual - something shocking. Something that so many people hate. In a time where molly is running rampant, producers are playing it safe and pressing play on the same songs, and everybody seems intent on reproducing the biggest drop, it’s almost a bit of a relief to hear something like this, even if it is completely tacky.

STARTING A WEB SITE? Get $5.99 .COM domains.