Today is the anniversary of Avicii's death and I wanted to write something about a song of his.
I remember when this song came out, I was 14 turning 15 and we have moved into our new house that summer. I didn't really like the song at the time; I didn't like the country aspect to it. By this time, I wasn't listening to EDM as much as I did before, so I wasn't an avid fan or anything. It wasn't until last year that I've started listening to more EDM that I've listened to this song again after years.
Now I'm 26 and I actually relate to this song more than ever. Life can be really hard, especially living through a time in your life that isn't ideal and you just want to get past it. You might push through your days wondering when it will all be over. I find myself having these thoughts frequently.
I think we all have an idealized point of our life we are working towards. It can be easy to get lost in your day-to-day routine trying to realize that dream that you forget that you're living and miss out on a lot of things. Because what if you get too occupied thinking about your future? And what if that future doesn't exist? Isn't it better to enjoy your life in the moment? It's self-destructive to dwell on these thoughts that your life isn't what it should be.
The lyrics itself are pretty bleak yet the music itself is upbeat and I hope that people don't take the chorus as the true message. I think this song is an important reminder to yourself to live in the moment and be happy now because it is easy to lose yourself in that mindset that you need to get past whatever you're going through. While yes, life may suck now, but enjoy your life now while you can as cliché as that sounds.
"Wake Me Up" is an emotional song that Tim crafted, I'm happy that he left it for us, and I'm glad that I can enjoy this song more than I did over 10 years ago.