''Stories'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by Swedish

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

producer

Avicii Tim Bergling (8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii, was a Swedish DJ, remixer, and record producer. At age 16, he began posting his remixes on electronic music forums, which led to his first record deal. He rose ...

, released on 2 October 2015 by

PRMD Music PRMD ''('' ''Pyramid)'' Music was a Swedish- American independent electronic music record label and music publisher well-known for releasing house music records, extended plays (EPs), and albums. The label was home to artists such as Avicii, ...

and

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

. It was produced by Avicii along with

Salem Al Fakir Lars Salem Al Fakir (; born 27 October 1981) is a Swedish musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He regularly collaborates with Vincent Pontare as the songwriting and production duo Vargas and Lagola. Together, they have worked with ma ...

Alex Ebert Alexander Michael Tahquitz Ebert (born May 12, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and composer. He is best known for being the lead singer and songwriter for the American bands Ima Robot and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. On January ...

Carl Falk Carl Anthony Falk-Gramer (née Falk; born 17 August 1980 in Stockholm), is a Sri-Lankan-born Swedish songwriter, record producer and musician and has worked with artists such as Demi Lovato, One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer, Nicki Minaj, Elli ...

, Kristoffer Fogelmark,

Martin Garrix Martijn Gerard Garritsen (; born 14 May 1996), known professionally as Martin Garrix (or Ytram and GRX), is a Dutch Republic, Dutch DJ and record producer who was ranked number one on ''DJ Mag''s Top 100 DJs list for three consecutive years—20 ...

Dhani Lennevald John Dhani Lennevald (born 24 July 1984) is a Swedish songwriter, record producer, and Pop/ R&B dancer and singer. He is a member of the Swedish pop band A*Teens, and briefly pursued a solo recording career after the band was dissolved. Career ...

, Ash Pournouri, Albin Nedler, and

Vincent Pontare Fred Vincent Pontare (born 13 May 1980) is a Swedish songwriter, producer, and singer. He is also known by the mononym Vincent. He regularly collaborates with Salem Al Fakir as songwriting, producer, and duo Vargas & Lagola. Together, they have ...

on several tracks. It is the final album to be released during his lifetime, before his death in 2018. This album was followed by his third and final album,'' Tim'', which was released posthumously in June of 2019. ''Stories'' was released to mixed to positive reviews from critics. Four singles were released from the album: " Waiting for Love", "

Pure Grinding "Pure Grinding" is a song by Avicii, released as a single in 2015. The track appears on his album '' Stories'' and on his two-track EP ''Pure Grinding / For a Better Day''. It was written by Tim Bergling (Avicii), Kristoffer Fogelmark, Albin Nedle ...

", "

For a Better Day "For a Better Day" is a song by Swedish EDM producer Avicii featuring uncredited vocals by American singer Alex Ebert, released as a single in 2015. The track appears on his album '' Stories'' and on his two-track EP ''Pure Grinding / For a Bette ...

", and " Broken Arrows", along with the promotional singles "Ten More Days" and "

Gonna Love Ya "Gonna Love Ya" is a song by Swedish EDM producer Avicii featuring Swedish singer Sandro Cavazza Alessandro Michele "Sandro" Cavazza (; born 11 September 1992) is a Swedish singer-songwriter of Italian origin. Besides his solo career he was a ...

". ''Stories'' has sold one million copies worldwide as of November 2015,PRMD Music (2 November 2015
PRMD Music on Twitter
twitter.com and was the fourth most-streamed album of the year worldwide on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

Background

In July 2014, Avicii told ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' that he had worked on 70 songs for his next album and would include collaborations with

Jon Bon Jovi John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and Lead vocalist, frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was fo ...

Billie Joe Armstrong Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician and actor. He is best known for being the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt in 1987. He is als ...

Chris Martin Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He is best known as the vocalist, pianist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay. Born in Exeter, Martin went to University Colleg ...

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean ( ; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, singer, and record producer. Born in Haiti, Jean emigrated to the Northeastern United States, United States as a child. He gained fame as a founding member of the Fugees, a Ne ...

Serj Tankian Serj Tankian ( , ; born August 21, 1967) is an Armenian-American musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the alternative metal band System of a Down, which was formed in 1994. Tankian has released five albums with System of a Down ...

and

Matisyahu Matthew Paul Miller (born June 30, 1979), known by his stage name Matisyahu (; ), is an American singer, rapper, beatboxer, and musician. Known for blending spiritual themes with reggae, rock and hip hop beatboxing sounds, Matisyahu's 2005 sin ...

. Describing the album, Avicii said: "It's going to be a lot more song-oriented." On 2 March 2015, Avicii performed live at Australia's

Future Music Festival Future Music Festival was an annual music festival featuring Australian and international artists held in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in Australia and as of 2012 also Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The festival was usually held in ...

. A lot of songs were leaked onto the internet from Avicii's UMF 2015 set. These songs include " Waiting for Love", "

", "City Lights" and "Sunset Jesus", leaked under the name "Attack".Middleton, Ryan (19 April 2015
Avicii Releases Ultra Music Festival 2015 Live Set Filled With New 'Stories' Songs
musictimes.com A complete track listing of the set can be found on Avicii's SoundCloud page. On 22 May 2015, Avicii premiered his first single from ''Stories'', " Waiting for Love". The track was co-produced by DJ and producer

. Almost a month later, Avicii communicated through Twitter that he had finished the album after two years of work. On 4 August 2015, it was announced on iHeartMedia Summit that Avicii's next single from ''Stories'' was "

", featuring singer

. On 28 August, he released his next two singles, the other being "

Singles

" Waiting for Love" is a song featuring Simon Aldred of

Cherry Ghost Cherry Ghost were an English music group which began in 2006, first as an alias for singer-songwriter Simon Aldred as a solo artist, before morphing into a full band. Their debut album, ''Thirst for Romance'', was released in July 2007 and ente ...

. Avicii released it on the 22 May 2015. "

" is a song featuring Alex Ebert. Avicii released it on 28 August 2015. "

" is a song featuring Kristoffer Fogelmark and

Earl St. Clair Earl Johnson II, better known by his stage name Earl St. Clair, is an American record producer, vocalist, and songwriter. Early life Earl St. Clair was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up between there and Alabama. Musical career St. Clair bega ...

. Avicii released it on 28 August 2015. " Broken Arrows" is a song featuring

Zac Brown Zachry Alexander Brown (born July 31, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the co-founder and lead singer of the country Zac Brown Band, as well as electronic dance music group Sir Rosevelt. In 2019, Brown ...

Zac Brown Band Zac Brown Band is an American country music band based in Atlanta, Georgia. The lineup consists of Zac Brown (lead vocals, guitar), Jimmy De Martini (fiddle, vocals), John Driskell Hopkins (bass guitar, guitar, baritone guitar, banjo, ukulele, ...

. Avicii first released it on 29 September 2015, three days ahead of the album release as a pre-order single. It became an official single during October 2015.

Promotional singles

"Ten More Days" is a song featuring

Zak Abel Zak David Zilesnick (born ), better known professionally as Zak Abel, is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He has also been an English Cadet national table tennis champion. He's known for several songs, such as "Be Kind", "Unstable" ...

. Avicii released it on 30 September 2015, two days ahead of album release as a pre-order single. "

” is a song featuring

Sandro Cavazza Alessandro Michele "Sandro" Cavazza (; born 11 September 1992) is a Swedish singer-songwriter of Italian origin. Besides his solo career he was also a member of the pop group Estraden. He names his musical influences as Eagle-Eye Cherry, Nirva ...

. Avicii released it on 1 October 2015, one day ahead of the album release as a pre-order single.

Critical reception

The album received positive reviews. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the album received a score of 64, indicating favourable reviews. David Jeffries from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album a positive review, stating that "the pleasing, alive, and diverse ''Stories'' is a fine reason to think of Avicii as a producer of attractive music, with EDM, pop, and all other genres on a sliding scale." ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

''s

Maura Johnston Maura K. Johnston (born May 28, 1975) is a writer, editor and music critic. A member of Boston College's journalism faculty, she has written for ''Rolling Stone'', ''The Boston Globe'', ''Pitchfork'', ''The Awl'', ''The New York Times'', ''Spin' ...

says that "''Stories'' drags a bit at the end, the low point being a reggae-lite track starring former Fugee

and the fusion-minded

, but when it hits, it hits big." Michaelangelo Matos, from ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'', gives the album a mixed-positive review, praising "Talk to Myself", "Touch Me" and "City Lights", saying they "are more or less direct Daft Punk homages, with a filtered, boogie-disco feel, playful effects and found-sound cut-ups". Mac McNaughton of ''The Music'' said, "Tim Bergling's second feature plays it way too safe, neither truly nauseating nor pleasingly haunting." Jim Carroll of ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'' said, "An album which offends greatly by its very inoffensiveness."

Track listing

Personnel

Vocals

Simon Aldred Cherry Ghost were an English music group which began in 2006, first as an alias for singer-songwriter Simon Aldred as a solo artist, before morphing into a full band. Their debut album, ''Thirst for Romance'', was released in July 2007 and ente ...

(track 1) *

Sterling Fox Brandon Lowry (born November 2, 1983), better known by his stage name Sterling Fox, is an American songwriter, record producer and recording artist. He has written and produced multiple #1 songs. Life and Times Brandon Lowry grew up in Stoystown ...

(track 2) * Celeste Waite (track 3) * Zak Abel (track 4) * Alex Ebert (track 5) *

(track 6) *

(track 7) * Avicii (track 7) *

Noonie Bao Jonnali Mikaela Parmenius (born 9 August 1987), better known by the stage name Noonie Bao, is a Swedish singer, songwriter and record producer. She has written songs for artists such as Don Diablo, Ava Max, Katy Perry, Zara Larsson, Charli XCX, ...

(track 8) * Jonas Wallin (track 8) * Kristoffer Fogelmark (track 9) *

(tracks 9, 14) *

(track 10, 14) *

(track 11) *

(track 11) * Daniel Adams-Ray (track 12) *

Wayne Hector Wayne Anthony Hector is a British songwriter who is best known for his work with pop artists such as Nicki Minaj, One Direction, the Wanted, Toše Proeski and Olly Murs. He co-wrote seven of Westlife's number one singles, including " World ...

(track 13) *

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was re ...

(track 15) *

Brandon Flowers Brandon Richard Flowers (born June 21, 1981) is an American musician. He serves as the co-founder, lead vocalist, primary songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional bassist of the Las Vegas-based rock band the Killers, which he formed with Dave Ke ...

(track 15) *

(track 15) * Nicholas Furlong (track 16)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Avicii albums Island Records albums Albums produced by Carl Falk