You have probably heard an Imagine dragons song before. If you’ve seen Arcane or Suicide Squad (and Me Before You apprently?), you’ve listened to their music. If you ever tuned into any Top 40 radio station between 2012 and 2018, you may have heard a hot single of theirs or two. Or, if you’ve regularly listened to any “Mainstream” or “Alternative” Rock Station in the past 13 years, you have the tune and lyrics to “Radioactive” burned into your brain. But, love ’em or hate ’em, one thing’s for sure: the cultural zeitgeist of the 2020’s has not been nice to them.
This hasn’t stopped them from going through their archives to release 14 demos from their sophomore album, Smoke + Mirrors. This won’t be a total review of either releases, as demos are often rough drafts of what would be the finished product. But that does not mean there isn’t space to discuss and appreciate the process. One of the most distinct (and some would say loathed) elements of Imagine Dragons’ discography is how much they lean into use of Digital Audio Workstations, the associated reverberation and “genre-less” sound of which may call into question the “rock” in pop rock. But by experiencing the stripped-down versions of the tracks the band and their record label felt were worthy enough to become singles, maybe we can get a peek into the inner workings of one of the most polarizing rock bands of our time.
When I first opened up the demo album and read the track list on Apple Music, I was sorely disappointed to learn that the demos in question were all unreleased, foiling my plan to do a compare and contrast save for “I Bet My Life” and a promotional single “Monica” released in January. But this didn’t stop in my quest to see: is their divisive sound the result of overproduction, or the band member’s personal desires?
Starting off with “Monica”…… just, yikes. The framework for a catchy pop rock hit is there, it’s just the vocals are disjointed, and Dan Reynolds has some voice cracks during the chorus. The lyrics are also incredibly jarring. While no one expects poetry out of Imagine Dragon lyrics, you get the feeling that they just needed some words to go along with the beat, and it comes off as uber-formulaic. There are some diamonds in the rough, but Reynolds and company are going to need to spend a lot of time back in the recording booth to find it.
Steering away from mindless bashing, I want to get to an Imagine Dragons song that has been a personal favorite of mine since childhood. “I Bet My Life” (which I always misheard as “bet my life on you”) has always had a personal association with freedom and exploration, whether that be at the end of the school year or the start of a long summer road trip with my family. (I may also have been influenced by the fact that the song is in Jeep commercials). The demo is a well-put-together, stripped-down version of an Imagine Dragons classic. Listening to the track, I can forget that this is supposed to be a pre-production track. The demo could easily stand on its own on the acoustic radio circuit. And the chorus is as energetic as the final product, even sans backing track.
Where does this lead us with the band? Is their work the result of artistic maximalism gone mad, or—as their detractors say—are they just middle of the road pop-stars with hipster aesthetics? Truth be told, if you already have an opinion about Imagine Dragons, there is not much I can say that will change your mind. And if you don’t have an opinion about the band, you’ll soon form one after you listen to their music. Still, I will say that their popular work is popular for a reason: it’s really catchy. But on the other hand, the band seems to lose any internal rigidity when it comes to the sound of their work. There’s a difference between changing as a band, and chasing trends in the industry. What Reflections (From The Vault Of Smoke + Mirrors) shows is that the band hasn’t become completely bankrupt in captivity, and even with less than stellar results, they still can push artistic boundaries, albeit away from what is considered highbrow.
