And I won't deny there are points where Imagine Dragons does kick in the guitars and start to build to a decent groove or attempts to mimic the riffs and melodies of other arena rock acts like Muse or U2 or Coldplay. So how did this happen? Well, you need to start with the instrumentation and production, the former of which was supposedly trying to go in more of a rock direction in comparison to the stiffer hip-hop-inspired beats. Not a bad album by any stretch, but definitely only decent at best. Unfortunately, Smoke + Mirrors just turns out to be underwhelming across the board. And as such, the record is something of a disjointed, confused mess - which might have been the point and could be redeemed if the individual songs were strong enough. If Night Visions was the album that was intended to establish and cement Imagine Dragons as a rock band, Smoke + Mirrors does the exact opposite, showing a band flying off in a half-dozen different directions in order to capture a workable rock sound that might be distinct. Honestly - and I hate having to say this - not much. But then again, it's also getting produced by Alex da Kid, who I've never really been impressed with as a whole. In other words, I was definitely curious where the band was going with their sophomore record Smoke & Mirrors, half because the band said they were going in more of a rock direction and the singles seem to be reflecting that. Lead singer Dan Reynolds had presence and power that reminded me a lot of Bono in a good way, the lyrics were reasonably solid albeit a little basic and overly broad, and the anthemic quality of many of their tracks did stick with me.īut let's be honest, that album has not aged well, mostly thanks to the monochromatic production courtesy of hip-hop producer Alex da Kid - many of the guitars were crushingly dreary, the percussion was over-emphasized, and the fact that the album was a composite of three different EPs and a few scattered songs really works against it. But I was more curious about the band so I did pick up their debut album Night Visions, and for the most part I liked it.
![smoke and mirrors imagine dragons album smoke and mirrors imagine dragons album](https://ilmupedia.co.id/uploads/article/media_upload/23/cov---imagine-dragons.jpg)
I'm not going to say that either song is fantastic, and I would have preferred to hear Queens Of The Stone Age on the radio than them, but again, there weren't many other options. 'It's Time' landed on my 2012 best list, and the massive follow-up 'Radioactive' landed on my list in 2013.
![smoke and mirrors imagine dragons album smoke and mirrors imagine dragons album](https://img.cdandlp.com/2019/03/imgL/119486008-2.jpg)
So going back to 2012, when I heard 'It's Time' by relative unknown Imagine Dragons, I didn't care it was only on the charts thanks to Glee and that the production was a little colourless, it was an indie rock song that landed on the Hot 100, I took what I could get. As of now, if I'm being charitable we might have eight rock songs out of a 100 on the charts right now, and some level, that makes me a little sad, especially considering it has been like this for a while. It's been declining for years, really since the 90s, but ever since post-grunge had its last gasps, most of the rock that lands on the radio is indie-flavoured or is so gutless it'd have been laughed off the radio in the late-80s, when hair metal was at its most poppy.
![smoke and mirrors imagine dragons album smoke and mirrors imagine dragons album](https://s3.amazonaws.com/NRNArt/Imagine-Dragons--Smoke-And-Mirrors-Live-album-cover.jpg)
![smoke and mirrors imagine dragons album smoke and mirrors imagine dragons album](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/39/1c/69/391c691be287eec813c3d1513eb2816d.jpg)
So as many of you probably know, I listen to a fair bit of rock music - and since plenty of you probably follow Billboard BREAKDOWN, you're all probably aware that we don't get a lot of rock music on the charts anymore.