Imagine Dragons nothing more than “Smoke + Mirrors”
The continued silence from American alternative rock band Imagine Dragons has finally ended after three years as their second studio album, “Smoke + Mirrors,” was released on Feb. 17.
But high expectations fans had after the Las Vegas band’s breakout debut “Night Changes,” which featured the biggest rock hit of 2012 in “Radioactive,” were not met with “Smoke + Mirrors.”
“Smoke + Mirrors,” alluded to the representation of illusions versus reality with inspiration from the own individual lives of the band members, who include guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, drummer Daniel Platzman, and frontman Dan Reynolds, who founded the band in 2009.
The new album opens with “Shots,” which was released as the third single from the album and is one of the album’s most prominent songs. It is a casual yet touching song about apologizing and regret. The smooth beat set the bar a little too high for the rest of the album and cast the “happy illusion” shadow over the rest of the album’s bipolar tones.
The band explored many different moods and meanings among its songs, such as “Dream,” which fell into a melancholy trance-like rhythm until the melodious chorus appeared only to fall back into the steady drum beat. Similarly, “Summer” also included notes of sentimental beats that suggests reminiscence.
The first official single, “I Bet My Life,” was a familiar rendition that possessed many of the band’s distinct styles. The line, “I’ve told a million lies but now I tell a single truth,” underlies a subtle story of forgiveness and mistakes.
“Trouble” seemed like a spin off of an Avicii song with “I want no trouble” making up 95 percent of the words.
“Friction” starts off like a rusty banjo playing at a campfire until a variety of yelling, whispering, gospel singing, and techno voices are added that make one feel that they’re in a Mazda car commercial or about to rob a bank with the screamo-like voice encouraging, “You can’t fight the friction.”
Mediocre points were found throughout the album in pieces such as “Gold,” where there were more random keyboard button features used than actual voices.
But “I’m So Sorry” wrought hope for the album with its heavy guitar rock beat, that may cause spastic dance movements, accompanied by again emphasizing the need for apology and forgiveness.
“The Fall” ended the album with a musical whisper that eventually led into the expected introduction of the drums but later fell into lapses of peaceful yoga-like instrumentals.
“Smoke + Mirrors” undoubtedly has some notable, but mediocre, moments in the album but when compared to “Night Changes” there is no doubt that it does not live up to the quality and drive behind the 2012 debut.
The legacy of “Radioactive,” “It’s Time,” and “Demons” from this album will be hard to match, much less surpass.
Despite the somewhat substantial growth of the band seen through this album, it is also notable that the themes have gained more depth and meaning.
“Smoke + Mirrors” is overshadowed by the glorification of Imagine Dragons’ early success as the band tries to present fans with a watered down version of their first album. I do not imagine dragons as much as I imagine more of sleeping puppies with nightmares.
I give this album 2 out of 4 Grizzly paws.
Alex Warner • Mar 16, 2015 at 9:45 am
I thought that the album was a brilliant culmination of both lyrics and sound. The band’s signature sound has long-time been an alloy of rock, folk, and electronic undertones, but Smoke + Mirrors upped the instrumental fusion, with even more percussion, guitar rifts reminiscent of 1970’s metal groups, new electronic beats, and americana inspiration. The lyrics are innovative and thoughtful, giving insight to the lead singer’s internal and external struggles with depressions. (Though at first play, the happy-sounding, Mumford-esque tunes may not allude to their truly darker side.)
For example, in the single “Gold”, Reynolds writes, “First comes the blessing of all that you’ve dreamed/ And then comes the curses of diamonds and rings.” He portrays the visual of Midas from Greek mythology (in that everything he touches ‘turns to gold’), while ironically referring to riches as ‘curses’. In “Shots”, he adopts the metaphor of a loaded gun in place of harsh words, and sings the antithesis, “I’m wishing you’re here/ But I’m wishing you’re gone.”
I recently attended one of their intimate small-club shows to kick off the Smoke + Mirrors tour, and they were everything I’d hoped for and then some. “Radioactive” of course, will always be the band’s defining song as it was the anthem that rocketed them from indie singers to overnight rockstars. Nonetheless, with Smoke + Mirrors reigning in at number one album on the Billboard chart, I think they’re far from the danger of being one-hit wonders, and I personally find the second album just as musically and stylistically-developed as the immense success that was Night Visions.