Imagine Dragons pulls through on second album

Mae Emyln Currie, Contributing Writer

When it comes to Imagine Dragons, they never disappoint their fans. With their indie rock beats and catchy lyrics, it’s hard not to love them. It has almost been three years since their double-platinum debut “Night Visions” hit the shelves. Last year, Imagine Dragons snagged their first Grammy for Best Rock Performance for “Radioactive” at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, and hopefully they will win more with their follow-up album “Smoke + Mirrrors.”

The opener “Shots” became the album’s third single when it was released on Jan. 26, 2015. The song starts out with lead singer Dan Reynolds apologizing for “everything I’ve done,” and then it immediately dives into the band rocking out to a new sound that possesses heavy use of synthesizers. He further goes on to sing about how he is going to mess up a relationship, but he does not want to hurt his significant other. Some of the strongest lyrics are in the chorus when he declares, “From the second that I was born/it seems I had a loaded gun/and then I shot, shot, shot a hole through everything I loved.”

“Gold,” the album’s second track, became the second single from “Smoke + Mirrors” on Dec. 16, 2014. The song contains whistling throughout and has similar bass and drums as “Radioactive.”

Of course everyone knows “I Bet My Life,” which was the first single from “Smoke + Mirrors” when it was released on Oct27, 2014. This song set the mood for what fans would expect from Imagine Dragons’ new album.

Other songs to jam to on the album include “I’m So Sorry” and “Friction.” If one is in the mood for slower but equally catchy songs, then “Polaroid,” “Trouble,” and “Hopeless Opus” are the ones to listen to.

Each song seems to evoke a different emotion or feeling, which is fantastic because Imagine Dragons took a risk and changed up their signature sound, and they did it for the betterment of their career and fans.

According to the official website of Imagine Dragons, “One of the goals in making this album was to capture the extremes of the past couple years,” Reynolds said. “There were times on the road where I was on the highest high, like after playing in Brazil in front of 80,000 people, and there were other times when I was really feeling how difficult and lonely it was to be away from my family for so long.”

“Smoke + Mirrors” was released on Feb. 17 and is now available for purchase. Disappointment is not a feeling one will experience with this masterpiece.

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