I had the feeling I was going to have to come back to Imagine Dragons. The #2 Billboard 200 debut despite the lack of coverage from the Stereogums and Pitchforks of the internet (in another words, a “silent-majority rock” album that this blog specializes in reviewing), the success of “It’s Time,” the fact that when you Google “Imagine Dragons metacritic,” my nasty review of Continued Silence is one of the first links to come up, it’s hard not to imagine that I would be once again be writing about Imagine Dragons and be reviewing their debut album Night Visions.
But even with all of these factors, I still hesitated a little on writing a Night Visions review. First of all, I was waiting for the album to get on Metacritic (again, read my About page for why I would do that). Secondly, I thought If their EP was as dull as a doorknob, then I wouldn’t want to imagine how lifeless a full length album would be. What eventually convinced me to write this review were A) the realization that music critics are lazy and thus Imagine Dragons might not appear on Metacritic and B) the fact that I listened to and enjoyed two tracks that weren’t on the EP but are on Night Visions: “Tiptoe” and “Amsterdam.” Talk about a pleasant surprise. “Tiptoe” is a synthpop track with broad vocals, lots of energy and a feel of a John Hughes film. “Amsterdam” somewhat resembles the song “Sweet Disposition,” capturing the same exuberance and drum beat as that Temper Trap hit. Sure, they might not be original, but instead of sounding like lamer versions of One Republic, they now sound like lamer versions of M83, which is not a big insult because M83 is awesome.
So how about the rest of the Night Visions? Well, it opens with the only song I liked from Continued Silence: the radiating dubstep track “Radioactive.” The cheerful “Cha-Ching (Til We Grow Older)” is another indie pop track that captures the excitement of “Amsterdam” and “Tiptoe,” If you really like Hot Fuss era Killers and don’t mind excessive pouting, then “Hear Me” is for you. “Underdog” has an excellent Daft Punk-like synth hook. The hidden track “Rocks” mixes together upbeat tribal drums with gloomy, beautiful strings, in turn making the song a weird, but wonderful, combination of Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire. The expansive “Nothing Left to Say” is the album’s greatest highlight, a 6 minute pull-no-punches epic that begins with symphonic trumpets and choruses before ending with mellow guitars, harmonic vocals and a cello. This was where I felt Imagine Dragons was exploring their full potential, a track that combines the band’s knack for arena rock with a sense of urgency and passion.
Night Visions also contains a few tracks that I loathed from Continued Silence, such as the lame, cheesy, overblown OneRepublic wannabes “Demons” and “On Top of World,” and the hit “It’s Time” (if it sucks the first time, it doesn’t become amazing the second time around). “Bleeding Out” and “Every Night” are additional tracks that follow this bland formula, though I do appreciate the dissonance at the end of “Bleeding Out” that briefly takes the song away from the dullness.
So overall, Night Visions is a nice improvement over Continued Silence. It’s not up there with Passion Pit’s Gossamer or even the overly indulgent Animal Collective album that was released the same day as Night Visions, but at least I can respect Imagine Dragons a lot more now that they’ve proved that they can be exciting and aggressive, instead of just safe and dull.
Grade: 6/10
December 2013 update: Hey look, Metacritic entry!
Outside The Aggregator 