Kygo finally finished a sentence he started writing back in 2013. For Heaven on Your Mind he went and got Dan Tyminski, the bluegrass voice that sang Hey Brother for Avicii, and built a tropical house tribute around him. I did not expect a bluegrass singer over steel-drum chords to feel this right, but the second that weathered vocal lands it just does.
The build is patient the way the best Kygo records are. The plucked stabs roll in soft, the kick walks underneath, and then Tyminski opens up and the whole thing tilts toward the sun. Around the drop the marimba line and that voice lock in together and you get a lump-in-the-throat lift that is pure Avicii by way of a Norwegian beach. Save it for the golden hour, the porch as the sky goes orange.
The Avicii echo is the whole point, and Kygo does not hide it. Hiring the actual Hey Brother voice closes a loop he has been circling his entire career. If you came up on his vocal-led tropical stuff, it sits right next to his run with Ellie Goulding and the rest of the Kygo catalog.
Heaven on Your Mind is out now, released May 22 on Kygo AS and licensed to Sony Music. Go sit with this one as the sun drops.
