Until Now is the second studio album by Swedish house musicsupergroupSwedish House Mafia. The album was released on 22 October 2012 to mixed reviews by music critics who praised its singles and the rework of Coldplay's "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall", but deemed the record to be more suited for live play than home listening. After the album was released, the trio announced that they would split up to continue with their separate projects. The album cover features a negative photo of Axwell, Ingrosso and Angello.
Singles
"Save the World" is the first single to be released from the album. The single featured vocals from Swedish singer John Martin. It charted at number 4 in Sweden.
"Antidote" is the second single from the album and debuted at number 4 in the UK charts. The song's contains vocals by Swedish-American rapper-songwriter Adam Baptiste, whose vocals are uncredited, co-written by Swedish songwriter Klas Åhlund.
"Greyhound" is the third single from the album. The song was performed at the Madison Square Garden on 16 December 2011, and charted at number 3 in the US.
"Don't You Worry Child" is the fourth single from the album. It was first performed at their final UK gig, at the Milton Keynes Bowl on 14 July 2012. It features John Martin on vocals. The single was released in Europe, Asia and Australia on 14 September 2012, 18 September in the USA and Canada and 7 October in the UK.
Promotion
Swedish House Mafia embarked on a tour, appropriately named "One Last Tour" which was their farewell tour. The tour began on 16 November 2012, and ended on 24 March 2013. It ran for 53 shows, and ended in Miami, when they parted ways.
Critical reception
Until Now was met with mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 57, based on 9 reviews which indicates "mixed or average reviews". David Jeffries from Allmusic commended the "dancefloor fillers" for being "bigger and more powerful this time out" while labelling "Don't You Worry Child" as the track which tops the record, but stated that "there's little here that suggests Swedish House Mafia is more than the sum of its parts". Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian found that all of the songs were "subjected to the same heavy hand on the tiller: beats are stonkingly four-to-the-floor, singers wail, breakdowns shudder", nonetheless commented on the album's "headbanging urgency" which prompts listeners to "tap a foot" thus classing it as a success for the group. Ben Weisz from MusicOMH felt that with the exception of a few "euphoric gems", the album "never quite shakes the feeling of being a little gratuitous" especially since there "isn’t enough creative spark on the record to justify its existence". The critic did find the "wobbling percussion" on "Leave the World Behind" to be "genuinely chilling" and hailed the remix of "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" to be the "greatest Coldplay remix ever fashioned" with its harmonies and breaks. In The Washington Post, Allison Stewart observed that there was no shortage of "blissed-out, Euro-inspired tracks" and was impressed with the Coldplay rework and "Don't You Worry Child" which she described as "seamless, roof-rattling and capital-B Big". Robert Copsey from Digital Spy realised that although there was little new to be found within the songs which "makes for an exhausting hour and 15 minutes", the album's intention was "never one of a cohesive, journey-leading record" while instead its strength lies in their live acts performed by the group: "In that sense, Until Now is a job well done". Mikael Wood from Los Angeles Times observed that there was nothing in "vocal-heavy set" of the record which "suggests an aversion to pop", yet felt that Until Now "sounds more like a beginning than an end" whose release coincided with the group's retirement. BBC's Matthew Horton noted the group's mastery of controlling the "ecstasy rush" as there is "barely a track in this loosely mixed set that doesn't wheel out the intensifying beats and rising acid synths of the big hands-in-the-air crescendo", but felt that it was "exhausting" and "impatient" due to them incorporating unearned "big moments" which were "thrown into the record whenever the ideas pot runs dry". Writing for Consequence of Sound, Derek Staples criticised the album's deluxe edition for being "excessively current" and "stuck in the recency effect" as there was no showcase of seasoned talent which would allow listeners to see their influences. The critic compared the record to Erol Alkan's Bugged Out Mix album which spanned for four decades of tracks, however concluded that the record was still "exactly what they wanted out of the trio". T'cha Dunlevy of Montreal Gazette labelled the album as "a bit of an anticlimax" with its release being paired with the group's breakup announcement while noting the effective, but "over the top and cringe-inducing" track makeovers of Miike Snow, Usher and Florence & the Machine. Aidin Vaziri from San Francisco Chronicle felt that even with the "psychotically high" energy level of the record, the songs would be "better suited playing in the background of Mountain Dew commercials than on headphones at home". Smith Galtney from Las Vegas Weekly commented that, "If Michael Bay made club music, it would sound just like Until Now", whose tracks are clocked in "EPMs " where "buildups begat crescendos and big moments merely exist to create even bigger ones". Ron Harris of The San Diego Union-Tribune criticised the album's predictability since previous electronica listeners will "know every note that is about to come and every drum roll that looms around each corner". The critic agreed that listeners who enjoy "fast and loud" beats which are "devoid" of its Chicago/Detroit framework roots will enjoy the record, but felt that it was "a touch simplistic" beneath its "flat mixing and uninventive tempo builds".
