Imagine Dragons is an American rock band, most known for their songs "Radioactive", "Demons", and "Thunder". The band consists of lead singer Dan Reynolds, lead guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, and drummer Daniel Platzman. Their musical career began in 2009 with the release of their self-titled EP, with the release of their debut album, titled Night Visions, happening in 2012. And, now, they've come back with the release of their fourth studio album Origins on November 9th, 2018. Not sure why "Origins" is the title of their fourth album instead of their first, but whatever. I'm a moderate fan of their work. I like enough of their songs to call myself a fan, but I haven't heard all of them. I like their style, and Dan's voice (when he isn't screaming at me), so I was decently excited for the release of this album. And, now, it's here. There's twelve tracks to go over on this record, so let's get right into it.
Track #1: "Natural"
Right off the back, I'm loving the gospel-esque mmm's that begin this song. Then, after the weirdly-flowing first verse, the music transitions into what you hear through the rest if the song, save for the interlude. And it sounds really good! I like how bouncy and upbeat it is, including the heavier parts. What I don't think is as fun to listen to is hearing Dan scream on the chorus. Yeah, I know that he likes to scream during their songs. I've just never thought it sounded good. When he's normally singing, he sounds great, but I could do without the yelling notes he likes to do. And this song is no exception. Every time he says the "na" in "Natural", he sounds like he's about to throw up. Not a very good sound. But the verses sound lovely. And I do appreciate the message of the song, when it was actually about the message. "Natural", from what I can discern, is about how this world is tough and how you're strong if you can survive in it. Cliche, but still something that a lot of people need to hear. This comes through very well during the chorus, while the verses mostly came across as word salad. The interlude was okay, and the pre-chorusus weren't bad at getting the message across. But, again, it really shines in the chorus. Not a bad opening track. We're off to a good start.
Track #2: "Boomerang"
Get used to these one-word-titled songs. There's a lot of them in this album. This song is not as good as "Natural" was, but it's still not bad. The instrumental is slick and smooth, which is one department that this band never fails in. Unfortunately, I think this song fails to keep the bouncy vibe flowing from the previous song. Dan's vocals in this, 95% of the time, aren't very good. The verses are the only times in which he doesn't sound like he's in agonizing pain. And, yes, the screaming does return for this song. It happens a lot more often in this song than it did in "Natural", which is making me worry about him losing his voice because of it one day. It can't be good for his vocal chords. The chorus and outro features the most of it. It's tough to listen to without cringing at how forced and painful it sounds. And the lyrics are extremely repetitive. The chorus consists of four short lines that are repeated four times each, and that happens every time the chorus happens. It's catchy, sure, but it gets annoying very fast. It feels like the band ran out of time while writing this song for the album, so they just copied and pasted the same phrase sixteen times. I pray that that isn't what happened. But, again, it is an ear worm, so I can't be too mad at it. I just wish they had done more with the melody. It's still an okay song, however.
Track #3: "Machine"
Wow, these songs are decreasing in quality as I move through them so far. This is still not a bad track, but it wasn't very memorable to me, either. "Bland" is a good word to describe it. The music itself is fantastic. It sounds like something produced by a machine, which is a very fun way of tying it into the theme of the song. But, again, I have to stress the repetitive lyrics. I can give it more of a pass with this song given its robotic theme, but it's still egregious. This will probably be the easiest song from this album for me to memorize, given how every stanza is repeated at least once as it goes along. I'm not kidding, the pre-choruses do nothing but repeat the verse that came before them. It'd be easier to listen to if it was catchy, but it isn't. I'm also getting tired of hearing Dan ruin his lungs in every song. Seriously, if you like to yell this much, just start a metal band. I like this band, I really do. But this album isn't doing much for me so far. Where's the Imagine Dragons of Night Visions? We need them back.
Track #4: "Cool Out"
A decent step-up from the previous two songs, but it still doesn't match up to "Natural". Thankfully, we're spared the usual repetitive lyrics and screeching vocals, but that doesn't mean we get a good song out of it. The chorus is still monotonous, Dan's vocals sound uninteresting and weak, and the whole thing just has a very tired feel to it. It's a boring song. I will admit that Dan's voice sounds a lot better here, probably because he's actually singing, but it still doesn't do much to save the song. I haven't heard the phrase "cool out" used, like, ever, but boy do I never want to hear it again. Those two words are said so frequently and so annoyingly throughout the course of this song that I'm beginning to hate the individual words. And the way that the words are delivered sounds like Dan tried (and failed) to spontaneously invent a new melody in the booth. That couldn't have been the way the notes were scripted out, Dan had to have ad-libbed that. Either way, it's not good. I doubt I'll remember this song in the longrun.
Track #5: "Bad Liar"
Still better than tracks two and three, but also still not memorable. But there is a bit more to admire about this particular track than there is in the previous three. For example, this song features the best instrumental in the entire album, in my opinion. It starts out slow and subdued, but then explodes into this EDM-inspired banger that is really fun to listen to. And I do like Dan's vocal performance in this song, too. Yeah, he still screams when he said the chorus, but he sounds good the rest of the time. It's catchy, it's upbeat. It's passable. The writing here is okay. Not the worst out of this album, but it does have a couple wonky lines here and there. I don't know what the song is supposed to mean, but it's okay. It was fun to listen to, but I probably won't remember it after I publish this review. Overall, not bad.
Track #6: "West Coast"
Well, the previous two songs were relatively mediocre, so it makes sense that we jump back down into "bland" territory. This song is annoying. The instrumental, the chorus, the flow of the song. It hurts my ears. The chorus features the worst example of this album's repetitiveness, when Dan says "I'll be" in the exact same way five times. Twice. All while the word "hey" is being obnoxiously chanted in the background. That alone was enough to give me a headache by the end of it. The chorus happens three times, so you better keep some Tylenol handy if you plan on listening to this song. And the acoustic guitar section of the instrumental sounds like it's being played by someone that doesn't know how to properly play the instrument. A sporadic strumming pattern, awkward jumpcuts in between a couple notes, it's not good. But I do like the pre-chorus. It only happens twice, but it's a much needed grace period in the middle of the madness. On the whole, however, this song is bad. Very bad.
Track #7: "Zero"
This song is being featured on the Wreck-It Ralph 2 soundtrack, which means that the movie's quality better make up for it. This is another bad song. The chorus is annoying (not as much so as the previous song, but it wasn't much better), Dan's voice sounds like he doesn't care about what he's singing, and the instrumental is bland and forgettable, among other issues. I don't like the way the song flows. Dan says the lyrics so quickly and so without passion that it feels like he's trying to get the song over as quickly as possible. There aren't very many places to breathe in the composition, which I'm sure is gonna make karaoking this song easy. There is a slow section in the middle, though, and it's pretty nice. It transitions into it smoothly, it's preformed well. I like it. And then the song abruptly jumps back to the other flow without much of a warning. Very jarring. This song is also poorly-written. The chorus talks about telling and showing the listeners what it feels like to not fit in, but then he never does. He references emotions in the verses, sure, but it's mostly things that everyone could identify with. The chorus makes it seem like this song is directed towards a select few of us that truly feels like we have no one. I don't feel like it did a good job of expressing that, speaking as someone who does struggle with thoughts like that. But, hey, at least the video is cool.
Track #8: "Bullet in a Gun"
Oh, no. I can't think of a better way to describe this song other than that. Oh, no. These songs really are decreasing in quality as they go along. I'll give this one credit for what it's trying to do, though. From what I can gather, this song is a jab at their haters, the critics, or any old average Joe that's ever given them a negative review. A lot of artists have done that before, but it seems as if, with this example, it actually starts in the second verse. The chorus has undertones, but it actually starts to pick up in the second verse. There's even a part where Dan screams the word "sellout". Y'know, in case you couldn't pick up what the message was. The writing suffers a lot, in my opinion. Similar to "Cool Out", I never want to hear the word "gun" ever again. It's said so many times that it's starting to lose its meaning. Oh, and the chorus is also the worst thing in this entire album. Screamin' Dan Reynolds comes back with a vengeance here when he belts out the words "come" and "one" so aggressively that I'm certain it's gonna scar his voice in the future. Seriously, it's awful. I don't foresee them preforming this song live very often.
Track #9: "Digital"
Ugh. This song had such a strong start, only to be squashed almost instantly in favor of the repetitiveness we've been getting from this album. The lyrics do that thing that a couple other songs do where it repeats the first verse multiple times (i.e. "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" or "Glad You Came"), which wouldn't be a problem if every other song on this album didn't already do that. Honestly, the title fits the song's vibe. The song is about how the world can be changed by...The youth? Maybe? To be fair, it isn't written very well. Some of the lines are downright odd, the amount of repetition makes my blood boil, and the title drops feel awkwardly forced. Also, surprisingly, the instrumental is bland, which is a shame. Up until this point, the music has been passable at worst. This is the first time I felt let down by an instrumental in this record, especially given the solid start it had. This song was boring, bland, and uninteresting. Kinda like most of this album has been so far.
Track #10: "Only"
Another song that had a strong start, but almost instantly fell apart. This one is one of the better songs on here, though, so I'm gonna give it a pass. The instrumental is nice, except for the choruses. It loses its charm during those sections. The lyrics are decently-written, offering some genuinely lovely imagery with a couple of the lines. Dan's vocal performance is very good, as well. There's a section in it when Dan does four-part harmony with himself. It sounds beautiful. Too bad it's immediately followed by screaming. Thanks for that. As with the previous song, the title drops don't feel natural. It's the word "only", one of the easiest words to fit into a sentence. This song just haphazardly slaps it in front of the chorus and does nothing else with it. Not a bad song, but not a very good one either. Not much to say.
Track #11: "Stuck"
This isn't that bad of a song, honestly. It's message, I think, is about not being over an ex, and it's told in a cute way. It's relatively well-written. It isn't very well sung, though. Dan adds a lot of falsetto to his vocals here, and it handled amateurishly. He also hits this really awkward low note when he says "one" for the second time in the pre-chorus. Never thought I'd hear a low note that sounds strained and painful. The instrumental was okay, the flow was nice, it had a charm to it that I kinda liked. All in all, not that bad. Oh, also, this song uses the word "only" in a fitting sentence that grammatically makes sense. Where was that in the previous song?
Track #12: "Love"
The last song of the album, and it goes out on a low note. The repetitive lyrics return in spades, as does Dan's screaming vocals, and the instrumental is weak at best. I guess the chorus is catchy, but not enough to save it. Ironically, an album this outright bad goes out with the phrase "Where did we all go wrong?". I feel the same could be said about the band itself. The songwriting is not good here. The verses are nothing but "cliche, repeat the last word twice" for every line. I get the message that it's trying to convey, I just don't think it tells it in a passable way. But the song isn't that bad for the most part. And then it ends. It ends horribly. The outro repeats the chorus in a way that most songs do, but this song turns up the bass way too high on every single solitary word that is sung and keeps it at that level of pain as the rest of the song plays. And I thought "West Coast" was migraine-inducing. I don't know who's idea it was to end this song like that, but they need to be fired from the band. This song tries to be a grand epic ballad to close out the album, but it fails on so many levels. Not a great ending.
Origins is not a good album, which is a huge letdown given the fact that I do enjoy some of their other material. The instrumentals are bland, the lyrics are mostly repetitive nonsense with very little originally sprinkled in throughout, Dan's vocals vary from acceptable to ear-bleedingly loud and obnoxious. I didn't enjoy my time with the album. It had a decent opening song, but the quality of the songs that followed it just kept decreasing and decreasing, with a few ups here and there. But, sadly, for the most part, this is a disappointing addition to the Imagine Dragons discography. I'm gonna give it a 4 and hope that they improve with their next project.
