A lot of speculation is bubbling up regarding the breaking news that Swedish House Mafia did indeed play two brand new songs last night at Ultra Music Festival‘s flagship 20th anniversary.
Axwell also finished the set by saying they were Swedish House Mafia “for life” this time.
With these two clues of more Swedish House Mafia to come, the only reasonable question to ask is: what next?
The lineups for most festivals have already been booked and finalized, and unless they’ve somehow worked their way onto Coachella‘s lineup, and other like-size festivals, I wouldn’t expect anything like new music or a tour from them for at least a couple of months. Still, I’ve heard from several independent sources that a world tour for EDM’s most legendary trio is actually going to happen. Whether this will be on the scale of an arena tour or something different remains to be seen.
Looking at these new songs specifically, I am grateful to say that Swedish House Mafia aren’t coming out immediately looking for a #1 radio hit akin to the success of “Don’t You Worry Child.”
The first track features a strong Daft Punk-esque Euro house vibe; and, don’t kill me, but what if it’s a Daft Punk collab? With Swedish House Mafia I truly believe that anything is possible and a Swedish House Mafia x Daft Punk collab would be literally the greatest comeback of all time. Daft Punk aren’t known to collaborate often, but they’ve been doing more things like this of late –“Starboy,” for example. Who knows… I sure as hell don’t, yet.
https://youtu.be/tzrAmjgZYT4?t=1555
The second track, meanwhile, is quite simply a pure Swedish House Mafia electro banger. First comes a hectic build that is lacking any of the airy melodic elements that their more mainstream releases are known for. Fueled by a vocal chant, it then drops into a heavy-hitting electro beat following a LL Cool J hook from his 1990 hit “Mama Said Knock You Out.” With all the flavor of modern sound design, this is the more exciting song for me unless my wild Daft Punk collab speculation proves true.
Now, could these be singles? Could a whole new album be on the way? Time will tell, but I’d hazard a guess that, at the least, an EP is on the horizon.
Despite the screwed up lighting production for their return to Ultra last night, and the terrible viewing angle afforded to online viewers, Swedish House Mafia’s return is making waves in the EDM community. Waves that haven’t been felt in almost 5 years exactly.
Welcome home, Swedish House Mafia, I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Photo via aLIVE Coverage
