I feel like many of us can agree that we were (and still are) hopeful for 2018 to be a better year. I don’t know what a better year exactly entails for every person, but for me, I find comfort in small victories.
Well, I am pretty sure 2018 is the light at the end of our tunnel of despair because the EDM world kicked off festival season with Ultra Miami last weekend, and they gave the fans the best gift:
Swedish House Mafia is back!
Three powerhouse DJs in the dance music scene — Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello — parted ways from their group, Swedish House Mafia, to pursue solo music careers five years ago.
If you are wondering who these guys are, I can almost guarantee you have heard their most popular tracks and sang along at the top of your lungs to at least one of those songs.
“Don’t You Worry Child” was topping charts all over the world in 2013.
Ultra had its 20th anniversary and teased some surprises for the celebration by posting, “Expect the unexpected...” on their main social media platforms.
Many people speculated what the unexpected could be, which was that maybe Daft Punk would emerge from the shadows and get back into the music scene. As cool as that would be, I think I was more excited that SHM was the big reveal at Ultra Miami.
Separately, the members of SHM still made good music and had their own hit tracks. Axwell and Ingrosso also worked on many popular songs together as a collaboration.
However, collectively, Swedish House Mafia brings a different sound to the table (or, in this case, the booth.)
Listen to songs by Axwell /\ Ingrosso and you’ll get an upbeat and feelgood sound, such as “More Than You Know” and their newest song, “Dreamer.”
Now, pull up some of Steve Angello’s music and you will get a unique and noticeably different sound than the other two. Angello toys with more club-style music but also features more abstract and ominous tones in many of his other songs.
The song “Nothing Scares Me Anymore” has a heavy string influence based on the deep cello arrangements and then gets almost hypnotic and hopeful. He uses this style in “Rejoice” but adds more drama with the featured voice-over.
What is truly impressive to me about these three artists is how different each of their styles is but also how they are each influenced by the other to make a perfect balance of sound that inexplicably works.
The best way to describe the merging of three same-yet-different sound styles is to compare the listening experience to a peanut butter cup: I love chocolate on its own and I am a fiend for peanut butter, but the combination of the two takes the flavor to a new level entirely.
I am just hoping that Swedish House Mafia’s Ultra performance was not a one-time reunion because not only was their set incredible (from what I could tell watching the live stream), but it made me pretty excited to hear what SHM could come up with this year after a five-year break.
I am a sucker for nostalgia, and it seems like this is a trend with others in my age group. With so much bad news, we long for the days we were carefree and felt like we were invincible.
I am also a fan of collaborations and mashups, especially in music. This is why the return of a major dance music group is giving me hope that we are in the transition period from darker days to a better year ahead of us.
Like I said before, I believe in the power of small victories, and if Swedish House Mafia is coming back to us, then I would like to hang on tight to this win and allow myself to be optimistic that good days are ahead — while jamming out to some new music, of course.
