Shots truly is remarkable, for first-time listeners, the song may sound strange, but after a few plays, the track’s purpose starts to shine through, and it becomes your next obsession. Let me clarify, their new music isn’t bad, far from it, but when Imagine Dragons take the reigns without their producer Alex Da Kid, magic happens. Back then, they had extremely diverse tracks that crafted a unique signature for the band, one that has been carried over in both Night Visions and Smoke + Mirrors, especially their newest single from the latter, Shots. Oh, those fine days before Imagine Dragons flew to the top of every chart, yes, that’s right, I mean their EP days. Here are reviews of each song, track list order: We weren’t close enough.After their debut album, which has now sold over 4 million worldwide, Imagine Dragons finally release their hotly-anticipated sophomore album, and it’s one hell of a ride. “But if we had this success in our first year, as some bands do, we wouldn’t have survived. “It’s exactly what we’ve been waiting for,” guitarist Wayne Sermon told Rolling Stone at the time. A rollercoaster world tour followed and, when Night Visions won Billboard Music’s prestigious Top Rock Album Award for 2014, this unassuming Nevadan quartet officially joined rock’s big league.
#NEW IMAGINE DRAGONS ALBUM 2014 CRACKED#
In its wake, another of the album’s key tracks, the yearning “Demons,” also cracked the US Top 10. ‘It’s exactly what we’ve been waiting for’ Initially a sleeper hit when first released, on October 29, 2012, it eventually peaked at No.3 on the Billboard 100 and remained on the chart for a remarkable 87 weeks, moving almost nine million copies in the process. The song’s universal appeal – and killer chorus – enabled “Radioactive” to became Night Visions’ crucial breakout track. It’s about becoming self-empowered and rising above that.”
“That’s basically a song about my struggle with anxiety and depression. “Alex really helped with, it has a dubstep vibe to it,” Dan Reynolds later revealed to Rolling Stone. Imagine Dragons were eager to prove their versatility on smoldering, guitar-driven rockers “Hear Me,” “Tiptoe” and “Amsterdam” poppy, synth-flecked flare (“On Top Of The World”) and tracks which benefitted from Grant’s hip-hop stylings, such as “It’s Time” and the vivid “Radioactive.” Night Visions – which the band crafted slowly with help from Grant and co-producer Brendan Darner – was both compelling and refreshingly eclectic. I grew up listening to a lot of hip-hop in the 90s, such as Tupac and Biggie Smalls. In the same interview, Dan Reynolds added, “We’ve always been a rhythmic rock band. “We bonded over rhythm and of course they were great live too,” Grant told Rolling Stone in 2013. The Nevadan quartet’s slightly quirky nature and their atypical usage of unusual percussive elements, such as the massive Japanese taiko drum featured on “Radioactive,” also endeared them to their new co-producer, Alexander Grant (aka Alex Da Kid), who has also cut hits with Eminem and Nicki Minaj. Further self-released EPs followed, and the band eventually brokered a deal with Interscope Records in 2011. With their creative juices flowing, the band’s fortunes improved after they won over a huge crowd at Bite Of Las Vegas Festival.
Key tracks from Night Visions such as the mandolin-flecked “It’s Time” and the anthemic “Amsterdam” first appeared in the band’s setlist during this period, alongside their crowd-pleasing covers of classics by The Rolling Stones, The Cars, and The Cure. However, in the same way that the grind of playing sleazy Hamburg bars sharpened-up The Beatles, these subsistence-level gigs laid the groundwork for Imagine Dragons’ subsequent success. It gave us enough money to pay rent and eat Top Ramen or Taco Bell.” We would do four nights a week and they’d give us $400 for the six hours. “The ding-ding-ding from the slot machines was louder than the tiny speakers they gave us. “We’d play in front of these blackjack dealers in bikinis and dudes just sitting at slot machines,” frontman Dan Reynolds told Rolling Stone in 2013. ‘The slot machines were louder than the speakers they gave us’ The venues included Mandalay Bay and the famous Caesars Palace, but glitz and glamour were rarely on the agenda.
A lengthy bout of dues-paying ensued, with Imagine Dragons playing every Vegas nightspot that would have them. Indeed, the Las Vegas-based quartet had initially scrambled for all the attention they could get following the release of their independently-issued, self-titled debut EP in September 2009. The statistics are astounding, but they only tell a small part of the story, for Night Visions’ runaway success was by no means a given.