Pop rock band releases fourth studio album

Coming out with their 4th album, “Origins“, Imagine Dragons attempted a few new aspects in their music. Music enthusiasts find it difficult to ignore their growing popularity since the release of the hit “Radioactive” in 2012. However, Imagine Dragons changed a few things with the release of Origins.

Imagine Dragons’ lead singer, Dan Reynolds, talks about the band’s new album in an interview published on udiscovermusic.com. Reynolds mentions how the band wrote too many tracks for their previous album, “Evolve“.

“We had these songs we created after ‘Evolve’ and we thought, we could wait a couple years like bands are supposed to and put it out, but then it’s going to be irrelevant to us because in two years we’re going to be in a different place,” Reynolds said. “So, we just thought…why don’t we put it out right now?’ It feels like the sister album to ‘Evolve’.”

The first song of the album, “Natural“, drew the album quite a bit of attention because of its classic Imagine Dragons feel and beat. The song failed to reach #1 on billboard.com’s charts unlike other Imagine Dragons songs such as “Believer“, “Thunder” and “Whatever it Takes“.

“Machine” draws controversy in my mind. This happens because the song expresses most of the feelings I normally get from Imagine Dragons, such as loud, bold vocals, but it also gives me some questions. I hear the same voice, but not the same music. It almost seems as the instruments were played wrong. The instrumentals just don’t fit the song. The band gave 90% to the lyrics, but 10% to the music.

My personal favorite, “Bad Liar” reveals the band’s ability to create a sad song with a upbeat feel. The lyrics consist of the speaker revealing to their significant other that bad times come, and he tries to comfort her with the news that nothing goes wrong. However, as the song’s title states, he’s a ‘bad liar’.

“Zero” created a lot of advertising for the band due to it being played in the credits for the Disney movie, “Ralph Breaks the Internet”. To fit the movie’s theme, the song contains a quite negative message. The song focuses on the fact that the speaker views himself as a zero, a nothing. In the movie, the main character feels insecure and wants to find his place. Another similarity between the movie and the song consists of the fact that the song runs on a retro arcade beat.

ORIGINS
out everywhere NOWhttps://t.co/OcH6Eqi26w pic.twitter.com/3mmfYiNObI

— Imagine Dragons (@Imaginedragons) November 9, 2018

“Bullet In A Gun” upsets the balance of the album. The song starts out with the same repetition of a beat for the first 32 seconds. After that, Reynolds starts to sing names of random Roman emperors. At that point, I got lost due to the fact that most of the lyrics made no sense to me.

Taking a break from the sad and serious songs, “Love” brings a very positive message to the album. The lyrics mention the problem of hate and intolerance in the world today. The track features a mellow rhythm compared to other Imagine Dragons songs.

“Only” spices up the album with its synth-like music. I enjoy how Imagine Dragons created this song to create a hyped up feeling in the listener and adds a fun element to the mix. This change that they experimented with definitely works, because this song still gets stuck in my head.

The last track on the album, “Real Life“, while not a favorite of mine, ends the album on a solid note. Something interesting about this song looks into the fact that it features acoustic guitar. Only three of the 15 songs in the album feature this aspect.

Overall, I enjoyed this release. “Origins” delivers the classic styling of Imagine Dragons. It also displays their experimental songs that others may or may not support.

The band currently does exceptionally well by today’s standards. I believe the band continues to create great songs that make the listener feel nostalgic and exited at the same time.

Origins is available for download on iTunes for $9.99 and the deluxe version of the album for $11.99. The deluxe version adds the songs “Birds“, “Burn Out” and “Real Life”.

For more music reviews, read about “Delta” by Mumford and Sons and “Malibu Nights” by LANY.

Brayden Iest can be reached via Twitter and email.

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