“Fades Away” by Avicii (ft. Noonie Bao)

 “Fades Away” closes out Tim, Avicii’s album which it is featured on. This is significant because, as the reader is likely already aware, Avicii had committed suicide approximately a year before it was released, and Tim is his first posthumous album. So in light of the title and style of the song, in addition to it being the final one on the playlist of Tim, to some extent it has been deciphered to point to his departure from the earthly plane.

And while this song is definitely based on a theme of permanently leaving behind the past, the narrator is doing so with a companion whom he has mutually endured “troubled times” with. The progression of the song also insinuates that their transition from one stage of life to another was something that, to some extent, occurred naturally after “all of the days” they’ve spent “out of the run”.

So stripped down to its basic elements, “Fades Away” is actually a song in which the singer (Noonie Bao) is celebrating overcoming hardship with a person who was with her during this journey. And what is actually ‘fading away’ in this track is the time period in which they experienced the aforementioned hardship.

Facts about “Fades Away” 

• “Fades Away” is featured on the first of Avicii’s albums to be released after his death, Tim. It was published by Universal Music Group on 6 June 2019.
• This is one of the many songs left uncompleted by Avicii upon his death on 20 April 2018. It was its co-producer, Carl Falk and others who took the initiative to get “Fades Away” released, as he felt it was “too good to leave unfinished”.
• And it was Avicii’s father, Klas Bergling, who solicited Carl Falk to finish this song and a few others on “Tim”.
• Contrary to what many think, this isn’t singer Noonie Bao first collaboration with Avicii. She had collaborated with him before, though she went uncredited for it, on his 2012 track (alongside Nicky Romero) entitled “I Could Be the One”.
• Noonie Bao was chosen for “Fades Away” as the people who put Tim together wanted it to feature collaborators who actually knew Avicii. According to Bao, the session in which they recorded this track was “a very-emotional day in the studio”.
• Avicii had help writing this song in the form of the following songwriters: Joakim Berg, Joe Janiak and Carl Falk.  Furthermore, he also produced it with Bonn and Albin Nedler.

Was “Fades Away” released as a single?

No. Tim was preceded by only three singles. And they are: “Heaven“, “Tough Love” and “SOS“.