Usually when a band has a really bad band name, the music they make is equally bad (Limp Bizkit, Hootie And The Blowfish, Nickelback). However, Las Vegas four-piece Imagine Dragons is the exception to this mass generalization. Imagine Dragons might hold the record for best music made with a terrible band name.
The band's major label debut, Night Visions, is currently exploding on the Billboard charts (as of the press time for this article, Hits Daily Double had the album at #2 on the Hot 100) and every bit of success the album receives is well-deserved. Simply put, Night Visions is the best electro-tinged pop-rock album since The Killer's Hot Fuss.
The album leads off with the delightful hybrid track "Radioactive". One part folk-jam, one part wobbly dubstep bass provides for a interesting combination that feels unique. If this is a listener's first listen to Imagine Dragons, perhaps "Radioactive" isn't a solid indicator of what the rest of the album has in store, but I'll be damned if it's not a hard-hitting opener. It's followed up by the much more reserved "Tiptoe" however, which I felt provided the front end of the album with a tremendous balance.
Fans of Charlie Simpson (of Fightstar and solo fame) will find a lot of similarities between the British vocalist's voice and Imagine Dragons vocalist Dan Reynolds. The similarity is especially apparent when Reynolds goes into his lower register, such as in "It's Time" and "Bleeding Out".
"It's Time" and "On Top of The World" focus mostly on rhythmic dynamics to drive their power pop sound forward. It's on these two tracks that drummer Daniel Platzmen is able to display his range of ability. While the songs aren't particularly full of massive fills, they rely on his extraordinary control over the rhythm. The rest of the band follows suit in both songs with rhythmic hand claps to extenuate the drum beat.
Tender ballad "Demons" provides one of the album's surefire highlights. The verses are full of somber introspection from singer Dan Reynolds, "So they dug your grave, And the masquerade, Will come calling out, At the mess you made," he sings in the second verse. Between the dark theme of this song and some of the dark lyrics in "Amsterdam" (sample lyrics: Kinda thought I was a mystery and then I thought I wasn't meant to be, You said yourself fantastically, "Congratulations you were all alone") this album seems have a lot more anxiety and self-consciousness attached to it than most pop releases.
Even "Underdog," with its 8-bit synth sounds and simple program drum beat, which has all the the makings of a simple, corny song, never quite feels mailed in.When Reynolds sings, "I get the short end of it, Oh I love to be, I love to be the underdog" you feel like he is actually giving an honest portrayal of himself.
Perhaps that's the key to the success of Night Visions; although the band has a major label budget and the crystalline pop production of now-legendary producer Alex Da Kid, the music they make never feels insincere.
Bottom Line: If you like intelligent, insightful pop-rock with great songwriting, you will enjoy Imagine Dragons' major label debut. The production at times is a little much, and Alex da Kid could've laid off with the gloss just slightly. But the band benefits from having a producer with one of the best ears for pop music around.
Recommended if You Rock: AWOLNation with more pop sensibilities, Charlie Simpson as a pop band, but not the Busted kind of pop band, fun.
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